The Evolving Star
by snowleopard314
Summary: It was just supposed to be a regular mission. Little did she know that everything was going to change. With new keys, growing powers, and an evil that has been dormant for nearly a thousand years, Lucy has really gotten herself into a sticky situation. Will Fairy Tail prevail, or will this end the world as they know it?
1. Chapter One: A Pillar of Light

**A/N: Hello! This is a new fanfic for me, and I would like your take on weather you like it or not. I have quite a bit planned out, so I was really just wondering if people were interested. Please read and Review. I also do not own Fairy Tail! Thank you**

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It was just a mission, like any other really. That was what Lucy thought as Team Natsu, with the addition of Wendy and Carla, were fast approaching the site where their newest job would be held. Already they had talked with the mayor of the town that bordered the northern edge of the forest they were currently traveling, and he had told them of the job they had come to do.

Typical of a job that Natsu picked out, they were taking out a lowly dark guild that had called this forest their base of operations. The problem being that they were going to have to scout the entire forest for all of the mages.

As far as the Mayor could see, there were three basic areas for the dark guild mages. The Master and all of the high powered mages were located near the center of the forest, the medium mages were between the center and the edge, and finally the weaker ones were located in a clearing just after the line of trees by the edge. It was set up so that as one of the mages grew in power, they could slowly make their way up through the chains and closer to the Master at the center of the forest.

"So how do we want to split up to take them?" Gray asked as he looked to the map that the mayor had provided them with.

Erza, of course, was the one who answered, "Natsu and I will slip past the first two and take out the top of the operation. Since this is also a training operation for Wendy, you and Gray will handle the middle mages. That leaves Lucy to deal with the weaklings by yourself, is that going to be a problem?"

Lucy knew that she was asking that because of the sheer number of weak mages and not as an insult to her ability. They knew that Lucy was strong in her own way, and Erza wouldn't have left her to deal with an entire level if she didn't think the Celestial mage could do it.

"It won't be a problem!" Lucy answered in confidence. She knew that if she had Taurus and her fleuve d'étoiles, they would be able to make quick work of it. Although the mages were not as strong as they would like, she knew that if she gave them enough time, they could do some damage. It was never good to under estimate an opponent.

"I'm all fired up!" Natsu said as he lit his fits on fire and pounded them in front of his chest.

Gray simply smirked along with Erza, his cool persona not allowing him to get pumped up like the pink haired dragon slayer just yet, though somehow he had managed to keep all of his clothes on so far.

Finally there was little Wendy who looked a little flushed as she gave a shy smile, determined to show she would do just fine.

Of course, no one could forget about the exceeds. Happy and Carla were up in the air, Happy was clearly excited as Carla simply had her arms crossed in front of her chest with a slightly disapproving look. She didn't like how fight happy these particular mages were at times. She thought it was a bad influence on Wendy.

With a few last words of encouragement, the five mages and two exceeds split into their teams and started to make their way to the desired fighting fields. Perhaps Happy should have gone with Lucy, but he was so used to being Natsu's wing man that he naturally followed the dragon slayer.

It only took Lucy two minutes to get within sight of the weaker mages' encampment. And from what she saw, she was not impressed.

Calling open Taurus's gate, she and the bull jumped out in full battle ready stance with his axe already positioned in his hands, ready to begin the fighting portion of the mission. He even kept his perverted thoughts to himself as he gave Lucy a quick scan with his eyes. The hearts there clearly showed he thought something, but Lucy was relieved when he kept the words in.

Flicking her fleuve d'étoiles at the targets that went too far away from Taurus, or the ones that were too close to herself, within five minutes all of the enemy mages were unconscious and in a pile around the bull spirit.

Lucy sighed; it really was almost disappointing how easy that had been. From the reports given, these guys were supposed to pose at least some challenge. Maybe it was just because she had taken them by surprise that they hadn't really given her much of a fight.

Calling out Virgo, she had the maid spirit tire them all up in anti-magic ropes so that they could be taken to the rune knights easily. With that done, she was just about to send the two spirits back, well, send Taurus back seeing as Virgo had already taken her leave, when she felt a pull at the back of her mind.

Without really thinking, Lucy had begun to walk forward, her surroundings blurring out of her view as if they no longer mattered. Not even Taurus's calls came to her, even if he was yelling things about protecting her 'nice body' and being a total perv.

She didn't even notice that she had entered a cave, or the shouting Taurus was doing now that he was worried about his key holder. Even as he was attempting to grab her arm and stop her from taking any more steps. She passed a barrier without realizing it, and the moment she was fully past it, the bull spirit was forced back into the spirit world, his master's magic suddenly cut off from him. It was like she had entered a pocket of space that was cut off from the rest of the world. Much like the space that Erza kept her armor and weapons when she had to Ex-quip.

As Lucy walked further into the cave, she found herself solely focused on a basin of what she assumed was water that sat on the ground in the center of the cave. Before she knew it, the Celestial Spirit mage was kneeling on the ground before it and looking into the clear, slightly sparkling liquid that was inside of it.

There in the center, sat two silver keys. It was what had called her into the cave to begin with. They both had been calling to her.

Finally out of her trance, Lucy was unsure of what she was supposed to do with the situation at this point. But she knew that the keys had called her, they wanted her to make a contract with them. She wasn't about to say no to two new friends. Even if she was inclined to leave them, which she was not, she didn't think that they would let her just leave. The magical presence of the two keys were telling her that they were as, if not more, powerful as the golden keys.

Just then another heavy magical pressure was felt. It was familiar and slightly comforting. It was no surprise to Lucy when the Celestial Spirit King was standing before her. She also had no doubts that whatever was happening was going to be fairly important.

"Human girl, it appears as though you have once again wandered on a celestial secret, though this time it was because of the keys in front of you." He began to speak in his deep voice.

He paused then, to see if Lucy wanted to say anything. To his surprise she said "Hi, Mustache Man! Long time no see." In her own little happy way. It made him realize that although he barely knew her, she had considered him a friend from the two other times he had met her. It brought a smile to his face.

He decided that it would be best just to ignore the nick name though. "Before you sit two keys that have not been summoned to this world in nearly a thousand years. You have the opportunity to summon them, but in order to do so you must take a sip of liquid within the basin. Only the smallest sip, are you allowed. Anymore and you will not be able to handle it."

Lucy nodded once to show that she understood what the king was trying to tell her, but inside of her mind she couldn't help but wonder what the liquid was that was surrounding the keys. She also was unaware that this was a test of some sort. It was to see if she knew how to listen to and follow directions even when she was unsure of the situation. Also, though no one but the king knew this, only those with pure intentions could have passed through the barrier that guarded the cave. It was one of the reasons the perverted bull had been denied entrance.

For all Lucy knew, the liquid could have been poison. But she wasn't thinking like that. She trusted the spirit king just as she trusted all of the spirits that had formed a contract with her. She trusted him with her very life.

So with some caution just to be safe, she took the smallest of sips from the liquid and carefully put the two silver keys into a pouch on her belt. When she felt her magic was full she would summon them for the contract.

The spirit gave her a nod and said "Human girl, if you succeed in opening these gates, more will come to you in the future. But you must be prepared, for with these keys those that value power will be coming after you. You must be prepared."

With a respectful bow, she turned to the spirit king and said "Thank you," before heading out of the cave. She had a feeling they were done talking.

Once she came out of the barrier, she was slightly surprised to see that Loke had been anxiously waiting for her to come out of the cave. He had come right after he had gotten Taurus to tell him why he was sent back without Lucy's say.

"Lucy, are you alright?" The lion spirit asked. His voice was clearly laced with concern as he spoke to his master.

"I'm fine!" Lucy said with a smile. Though, one could also see that she had a gleam of excitement in her eyes.

Loke was relieved to see that she was fine. But, little did he know it was too early to be completely without worry. As soon as his back was turned, to escort her back to the rest of the group, a pillar of light surrounded the key holder, and he was suddenly doubled over in pain.

It felt as if hot lava was being poured into his stomach. As he turned around to check on his princess, he saw that she was floating in a pillar of golden light. He called out to her, but it appeared as though she was unconscious. A serine expression was evident on her face, but he that didn't mean that the leader of the zodiacs was reassured of her safety. If anything it made him even more worried.

When he tried to get closer to Lucy, the shear pressure coming from the pillar pushed him back. And as he watched, his pain had begun to increase. It was to the point where he should have been forced back by then, but he refused to leave Lucy's side.

Worried for his masters safety still, he mumbled "Wendy," and began to search for the little sky dragon slayer. He needed to get to them.

After a good few minutes of stumbling around in the direction he thought she would be in, he finally came across her four team mates and the two exceeds. Of course he couldn't breathe right when he saw them, causing him to fall to the ground in pain, panting heavily.

"Loke!" Gray called to his friend.

Wendy ran over to heal him, but he took a grip on her wrists, stopping her and rasped "L-lucy… plea-please help Lucy!"

"Where is she? What happened?" Erza demanded as she straightened and prepared for an attack of any kind. They had all noticed that the dark guild had been far too easy to defeat. The first thing that had run through the head of the s-class mage was that one of the higher ups had been with the weaker mages and had gotten to the celestial mage somehow.

"By a cave, not far away, straight the way I came. It was after she had taken care of all the mages. I don't know what happened. But you have to get to her. Please," With that last word coming out the lion spirit had reached his limit and slumped against Gray who happened to be right next to him. The others could tell that he was in extreme pain, even if he didn't look wounded at all.

The group ran forward, looking for the spot where Lucy was supposedly in danger. As they ran, they did notice the pillar of golden light that seemed to be their destination. Even if it didn't feel malicious to any of them, they couldn't stop the worry that what enveloped their friend was hurting her somehow.

When they finally came into view of Lucy, all of them stopped and gaped.

Floating off of the ground a good twenty feet in the air was Lucy, and she was in the center of the glowing pillar that seemed to be pulsing around her like a heartbeat. Her eyes were closed and her mouth was partly open. It was almost as if she was sleeping.

They had been just looking at the spectacle for a good minute when an agonizing yell came from Loke. He was doing everything in his power to keep the painful burning in his stomach from spreading. Though, he didn't know this, it would hurt a lot less if he just accepted it. But the lion was too dense to figure this out, so he was fighting against it tooth and nail.

"Loke, go back, we will help Lucy." Gray promised his friend. They all had looks of determination in their eyes. They would not let Lucy down!

With a nod, the leader of the zodiacs left the human world to be greeted in the spirit world by Lucy's other spirits. What they had to tell him came as a shock.

Wendy had begun to scan the magic, and Lucy. She stiffened at what she felt. And as she was scanning, the three others were trying their best to reach Lucy, but every time they came within the pillar, they were thrown out and back to where they had started off. They were beginning to get desperate.

They needed to get to Lucy!

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**A/N so yeah, please tell me what you think. **

**Big shout out to Lavender Lynn for the Cover Art and to TigerDemonX52 for reading over my idea!**


	2. Chapter Two: Without a Trace

**A/N Welcome to the second chapter. I just couldn't wait to get this one uploaded, so I got it out rather quickly! Thank you to Bentears and trueviolet1216 for reviewing my first chapter! Please read, enjoy, fav, follow, and review!**

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Chapter Two: Without a Trace

It was just a normal day at the Guild. Mira was behind the bar getting food and drinks ready, Cana was on her fourteenth barrel, and Gajeel was in his corner with his eyes closed pretending not to notice that Levy was sitting right next to him. Master was even on the bar drinking his own mug of ale down as he looked over his brats with a sense of pride.

The only thing that was the slightest out of order was the fact that there was order. Though everyone was talking loudly and having a grand time, they all noticed the lack of fighting, flying tables, and the sounds of destruction. All of which were almost expected to fill the guild. It was odd to say the very least.

"Hey, Makarov, it seems a little quiet today." Macao noted as he drank by Fairy Tail's master. It was early enough in the day that Cana hadn't challenged any of them to a drinking contest just yet.

"Enjoy it while it lasts; Team Natsu will be back soon." The master laughed. He always liked it when Natsu and Gray were out on missions instead of in the guild. It cut down on the destruction and the bill for repairs.

Makarov would have done anything to keep the destruction in his guild to a minimum. It was probably the one thing that came with being master he wouldn't miss when he announced his replacement. Too bad Gildarts ran away from the job. Now he was stuck with these brats until he could find someone else to take his place. If Laxus would just get along better with everyone, he would be a great choice.

"When does their mission end anyway?" Levy asked from the dark corner she shared with Gajeel and his exceed. She was excited for them to come back because Lucy had promised that she could read more of her novel when they came back. The last part that she had been allowed to read had ended in a suspenseful cliffhanger.

Mira looked up from the glass she was washing and answered "They should have been back a few days ago. I bet that Natsu tried to get them to walk back instead of taking the train. Or he and Gray could have gotten into a fight. You know how they can be." She smiled as she recalled their flamboyant personalities.

Levy just offered a disappointed nod before she went back into the corner she was sharing with Gajeel and Panther Lily. Both the slayer and the exceed were both feigning disinterest with matching scowls and crossed arms. Not that they were fooling anyone with that. It was also enough to make the solid script mage giggle on a normal day. But on this afternoon, she just didn't have it in her do to her worry over Lucy and the rest of Team Natsu.

As if summoned by the number of people thinking and talking about them, the guild doors opened to reveal the team that everyone was talking about. Four people and two exceeds walked into the guild, surprising everyone with a lack of a greeting.

They knew something was up with the usually happy team as they walked in and ignored the few greetings that were thrown their way. They watched in concern as they saw almost every head in the group was bowed down low for a reason no one knew. A depressed aura surrounded as they walked forward towards the bar,

This was not the rambunctious Team Natsu that they all knew and loved.

Not even Happy and Wend were smiling. If anything, those two seemed to be close to tears.

They all stopped as a group right in front of the master. Though, none seemed to be able to speak. They just stood before the master with identical expressions of grief.

"Is there something wrong?" Makarov asked the disheartened group that stood before him.

That was the tipping point for Wendy. A single tear had escaped from her eyes as he asked hem the question, and she was doing everything in her power to suppress the sobs that threatened to come out. Happy also had to bite his bottom lip to stay in a somewhat composed state of being.

Still, none of them spoke.

"Where is Lu-chan?" Levy asked from her corner. She had noticed the lack of the celestial mage since the group had walked in. "Did she go straight to her apartment?"

Erza took a step forward at that. "Master," she started, her usually strong voice cracking, "We cannot find Lucy. She has disappeared."

There was a collective gasp heard throughout the guild. They all froze as they watched the s-class mage; the Titania of Fairy Tail, slowly start to fall apart. It wasn't just because her shoulders were shaking either. Most of them that were standing there had never seen her like this, or heard so much grief in her voice.

"Start from the beginning child. What happened?" Makarov gently prodded. He knew that in order to understand any of what was going on he needed to know the entire story.

"In order to complete the mission, we were all separated." Erza began to report what had happened. "Natsu and I went for the master and the inner circle, and because we were helping Wendy train, we had her and Gray take care the large portion of medium strength mages. That left Lucy to deal with the underlings. We knew that she shouldn't have a problem dealing with them, especially with her spirits."

The Master nodded. He knew that Lucy was stronger than she gave herself credit for, and that she was actually strongest when she was separated from the group. He also thought that the split had been the best plan for the mission. All of the mages should have been dealt with easily.

"We all finished our assignments with relative ease. We were regrouping when Loke stumbled into us. He appeared as though he was in a lot of pain, though there were no visible injuries on him. He went straight to Wendy and told her that Lucy was in trouble. Of course we rushed to where he told us she was. And that was when we saw it." Erza stopped there, her eyes shielded by the curtain of hair that had fallen over her face while she spoke.

"What did you see?" Makarov prompted them to go on. Every single member inside of the guild was listening intently. To the point where one could hear a pin drop I the usually rowdy guild hall.

"It was Lucy," Gray spoke up, "she was floating in the center of this column of light that seemed to stretch all they up into the sky." He finished without looking up from the ground.

"The closer we got to the light, the more pain it seemed that Loke was in." Wendy added through her tears. She was bawling by then.

"We couldn't get to her. Every time we tried, the light seemed to push was away." Natsu finally was able to speak, "No matter what we did, the power wouldn't let us get close to her." It was clear that he was taking this even harder than the others. He was Lucy's partner after all; he was the one who brought her to Fairy Tail.

The master cleared his throat, "You said that you could not find her; what did you mean by that?" He asked with confusion laced in his expression. His voice was gruffer than usual do to the fact that his throat had long gone dry from listening to the shear emotion in Team Natsu's voice along with the emotions that were bubbling up inside of him.

"The light was pulsing. With each pulse it would get more and more intense. Then right as it got too bright for us to see, it disappeared. And Lucy vanished along with the light." Erza continued the story.

"Wait," Gray suddenly spoke up again in his strained voice, "I remember that before the light became too bright, and while I could still see Lucy, I noticed that her clothes changed. For some reason right before she disappeared, she was suddenly in a ball gown for some reason." He didn't know what compelled him to say that, but he knew that they needed to share every detail of what happened.

Makarov nodded before he started to think for a moment. After a very pregnant pause, in which the entire guild was watching him, he looked up and asked "What about the mages she had defeated?"

"All of the mages were accounted for, unconscious, and secured with magic repelling ropes. Also, when questioned they had no clue what happened to Lucy, only that she and Taurus had knocked them all out." Erza said.

The other three nodded as they remembered how thoroughly Erza had questioned the dark mages. When they had woken up, she had threatened their very lives with her demonic aura and swords. It only proved that none had known where Lucy had gone.

"Also, there were no mages in the group, no, in the guild that could have had that much power. I would have to say that whatever created that light had to at least be on par with Jura of the wizard saints." The scarlet haired knight added.

"What did the magic feel like?" The master asked.

"It was strong," Gray offered.

"It felt … warm." Wendy answered shyly.

That caused Makarov to raise his eyebrows in surprise. Now there was only one other thing that he needed to know. "Was Lucy in pain? Did it seem like the light was trying to hurt her?"

Erza's head snapped up almost instantaneously. "Actually, she looked as if she was sleeping peacefully. If it wasn't clearly obvious that it was causing Loke pain, I wouldn't have suspected anything was wrong."

"Anything else that you noticed, anything at all?" The master asked.

"We tried to follow her sent. Well, Wendy and I did. From the clearing where she fought the mages, she and Taurus seemed to walk to a cave. That was where Taurus must have left, she went into the cave, and when she came out she must have summoned Loke. Then she would have been sucked into the light thing." Natsu said as he scratched his head, making sure that he didn't forget anything.

"I remember that when we asked the locals about the cave, they said that they didn't know what was in there because there was a barrier at the entrance." Gray added.

Before he could say anything else, he was interrupted by the Titania, "But when we went inside there, there was nothing. Not even the barrier that they spoke of."

Makarov caught his chin in his hand as he thought. From what they had said, he didn't think that Lucy was in any danger from the power that had surrounded her. But that didn't mean that he knew what was going on. If anything it made him even more confused. He didn't know why or how she had disappeared.

"Master?" Mira asked from behind the bar. Her ever cheerful eyes filled with tears that threatened to pool over.

"I don't think that Lucy is in danger," He stated.

There was a collective release of tension at his wards around the guild. Lucy had managed to wiggle herself into most of the guilds heart. No, she had become the heart. She had this way of making all of their worries disappear with a simple smile. She had a way of rallying everyone's spirits and making them work together.

Even with the mages that she didn't know very well. Laxus and the Thunder God Tribe had warmed up to her in their way. They noticed that she had some strength, and that whenever she was around, the guild seemed to light up. They weren't the only ones either.

Gajeel had realized this from the start; when he had been forced by Phantom Lord to kidnap her, and when he had tortured her. He didn't believe for one moment that she was just a regular guild member.

"However," Makarov continued, "I do not know what has happened. For now all we can do is keep looking. I will notify the other guilds and the council. I know that she has friends in other guilds that will gladly help. But you all must keep going on missions. They will take you o different places where you can ask questions and look for Lucy."

With the guild in agreement with him, Makarov went back to his office. He had to get onto the communication lacrima and notify everyone who could help. He also wanted to see if the only other celestial spirit mage around knew what was going on. It was a long shot, but he had the feeling that what happened to Lucy had something to do with her powers.

The days spent searching turned into weeks, and the weeks started to stretch out into months, no one could find a single clue to where Lucy went. And although the other guilds took the notice seriously, the council had felt that it was comical for a mage to disappear in a pillar of light. They even said as much. Whatever the case might have been, it was clear that Lucy was missing, and that Fairy Tail could not find her.

After the first month had passed, Fairy Tail was almost unrecognizable. There weren't nearly as many fights, and hardly anyone stayed in the guild. There weren't enough jobs for everyone searching, and each job finished was lacking the destructive finesse that the guild had gotten a reputation for. It was almost as if it was an entirely different guild.

Though, at the second month, after some had lost hope, the guild started to return to the normal routines that everyone was used to. They all knew in their hearts that Lucy had to be okay, and that she wouldn't want them to all e so uptight and worried about her. Even without her there, she managed to touch their hearts and give them the strength to keep going.

Team Natsu had stopped being depressed, and had just gotten into a determined spell. Master was almost thankful of the change. It cut down on paper work because less was destroyed. But he also hoped it would stay that way when Lucy came back. Not that he kept his hopes too high.

The second month had passed with no sign of Lucy. And once again they had begun to feel discouraged from the search. Some wondered if they would ever find the blond celestial mage. Even with hope in their hearts and Master's words, they felt that hope was being lost.

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**A/N: Yes, slightly depressing, but I felt like it needed to be. Please review and tell me what you think. I would love some feedback. **


	3. Chapter Three: What the Cats Found

**A/N Hello mina! I know I have been fast with these updates, but I also know that I have to warn you that they will probably become slower. I was undecided when I started writing this if I was going to post or not, so I already roughly wrote the first four chapters lol. **

**Please read, fav, follow, and review. I love reviews so much. Thank you to all of you who reviewed the last chapter. Although I can't give you cookies for it...sorry.**

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Chapter Three: What the Cats Found

At Sabertooth:

The core five mages of Sabertooth and the two exceeds were enjoying the quiet of the guild. It was unusual for the guild to be so quiet, but at this time of night it was even more unusual for people to actually be in the guild. With all the paper work finished for the day, the Sabertooth mages were trying their best to relax.

Ever since the last Grand Magic Games, the entire guild had been through a remodeling faze. It started with repairs the the guild hall, and then went to the spirit of the guild, and finally the reappointing of a guild master. Somehow, through popular vote, Sting had been voted master of the guild to replace Jiemma.

Technically, he was supposed to deal with the paper work alone. However, the other four had offered to help under the guise that it would be done faster if they all helped out. Though, in truth, they really offered to help because they thought that if left to his own devises, Sting would unintentionally bring down the guild. But the young guild leader didn't need to know all of that. He was just glad for the extra help.

That was how Sting, Rogue, Rufus, Orga, and Yukino ended up in the guild at nearly midnight swapping stories that they had all heard before abut missions that went a bit too far. Not that any of them really cared that they all knew the stories by heart, what mattered was that they were all getting along and were together without fear lacing the atmosphere in the guild.

Of course Lector and Frosh were there as well, but they were a little quieter than the others. The little green exceed had long ago fallen asleep while sitting in Rogue's lap, and the red exceed wasn't too far behind him. Even as they spoke his eye lids were getting heavier.

Rogue and Sting couldn't help but glance at Yukino every few minutes. It had been really tough getting her to come back to the guild, but now that she was back, it was nice to see that she was once again accepted into the inner circle. And Sting was not as oblivious as Rogue seemed to be. He had noticed the blush that had come across the white haired celestial mage whenever she was around the shadow dragon slayer, and he had also noticed the answering blush on his partner's cheeks. It was kind of adorable.

"-and then I fried the sucker right then and there!" Orga finished with a laugh as he smashed his beer mug on the bar with a little too much force.

As the ale sloshed out of the mug, the others laughed at his expense. In any event, it was funnier than the story he had just retold for the thousandth time.

It had also gotten both of the exceeds to become fully awake. Poor Frosh was rubbing his eyes to try and rid his mind of the last few cobwebs that were left over from his nap. Lector stood at attention, waiting for a chance to boast of how wonderful his dragon slayer was.

Just as they started in their second round of drinks, a bright light flashed from the training grounds a little ways away from the guild.

"Shit, the town is going to complain again! You'd think that after the twentieth lecture they would stop having midnight brawls!" Sting growled as he put his mug down and headed to the door. He was going to give those idiots who were fighting a piece of his mind.

"Go Sting-kun! You will show them just how great of a master you are!" Lector cheered as he followed his dragon slayer out the doors.

The others passed around a look before following after him. They all knew that if left to deal with it alone, the light dragon slayer would most likely just make matters worse and even brighter than they already were. They knew this because it had happened in the past … multiple times.

Running into the training grounds, they all suddenly stopped in their tracks. With their jaws slack in shock they looked at what was emitting the light in front of them.

In the middle of the Sabertooth training grounds, a pillar of light stretched into the sky. And in the center of the light, a blond woman floated. She was in a midnight blue ball gown that was accented with the constellations. On her wrists were gold plates of metal that formed a bracelet. Similar plates started from her neck and reached out several inches, created a golden armor like necklace. Her hair floated freely around her shoulders and ended just below her shoulders. Over the dress sat a brown leather belt that had keys attached to one hip and a whip attached to the other.

"What the hell?" Sting asked as he looked up with a mix of awe and a little bit of fear. He could feel the sheer pressure from the power that was rolling of the light. And they all noticed that the light seemed to pulse like a heartbeat.

"Lucy Heartfilia, Celestial Spirit Mage of Fairy Tail, disappeared three months ago in a column of light." Rufus said. His hand was already held up to his head, two fingers to his the side of his forehead so that he could memorize what he was seeing.

As they watched, the light started to fade, before it disappeared all together, depositing Lucy onto the grass below her. And at almost the exact moment she touched the ground, three golden flashes of light could be seen.

Standing before them in a crouched position, ready for a fight, was a man with orange hair that seemed to have ears in it who was wearing a suit for some reason. Behind him, a goat man in a suit and a maid with pink hair were kneeling by beside the unconscious celestial spirit mage. Seeing that there was no danger present, the crouching man stood and readjusted his suit before pushing his glasses up so that they glared at the mages in front of him.

"Leo, the lion, Virgo, the maiden, Capricorn, the goat. How are they all out?" Yukino asked softly with wide eyes.

"We can pass through our own gates at will," Leo explained with a scoff.

They all widened their eyes. They had never known that the Celestial spirits could do that. Well, Yukino knew that Leo could, but he was also the leader of the zodiac. She figured that he had special circumstances. Never would she have thought that the others were able to as well. Not when they lacked an emergency alert system like some of the silver keys.

"You can do that?" Rufus asked in curiosity. He was still memorizing this encounter.

"We do it all the time. Whenever our Princess needs us we are here." The lion spirit challenged with the gleam on his glasses still prevalent. He was not planning on taking any shit from the mages in front of him. He had come prepared to fight just in case he had landed in hostile territory.

"Lucy-sama will wake up shortly. I suggest you tell her guild, and yours, that she will be coming back soon." Capricorn reported as he shimmered out of this world. He left the care of his key holder to the maiden spirit for now. She was more than enough anyway.

Loke gave a nod to Virgo, the unsaid words clear to everyone present. Both of the spirits had left the protection of Lucy to the maiden. He then gave one last glare at the Sabertooth mages before he also disappeared in a gold shimmer.

"Wait a minute!" Sting then addressed the pink haired maid "Where was she for the past three months? Her guild has been searching for her nonstop since she disappeared." Lector nodded from his position next to sting with his paws fisted and resting on his hips, and a smug smirk on his lips. It almost looked comical on his small frame.

Virgo leveled her emotionless blue stare at the blond dragon slayer before answering "Where hime has been is none of your concern. But to her it has only been a day." If said to one of her team mates, they would have understood what the spirit meant instantly, but the mages that surrounded Lucy right then had no clue what that meant. How could three months equal a day?

"Why is it that when you all came out Leo seemed ready for a fight?" Yukino asked.

Virgo turned towards her master, not wanting to look at the other mages. There was a long pause in which they thought that the spirit was just going to ignore the question, but then she answered "We didn't know where hime was going to land. For all we knew, she could have landed in a nest full of monsters, or in the guild hall of a dark guild."

Yukino nodded as she thought. It only took a few more moments for Lucy to begin to groan slightly as she was regaining consciousness. Slowly her chocolate brown eyes opened up and she found herself looking at the emotionless face of Virgo.

"Virgo, what happened?" She asked the spirit.

"You're back in the human world, hime. Though, it has been months here." She dutifully answered.

"Oh," Lucy said as her face scrunched in concentration as she thought, "Mustache Man could have warned me that was going to happen." She murmured.

"Then it would not have been a suitable test," Virgo observed. Her blue eyes seemed to flash with amusement, but otherwise she showed no emotion at all.

The other mages had absolutely no clue what they were talking about at this point. Though they were curious to know who she called Mustache Man. The name was very interesting to say the least. But at the same time, they were worried about other things. It was not the time to ask something like that.

"Hey, Blondie, are you alright? And why the hell are you wearing a dress?" Sting asked her, directing her attention to the fact that there were others around her.

"It's Lucy!" She snapped at him, then she added "And did you even realize that you're blond too?"

That was when she noticed that she was with the core five members of Sabertooth and two of their exceeds. Though she knew that they had changed to be more like her own guild, she was still a little nervous around them. Not afraid, just cautious. She didn't hold anything against them. And she considered her and Yukino to be friends, even.

"Whatever," Sting rolled his eyes.

"And I am perfectly alright, and it's none of your business when I wear!" She finished in a huff.

"I'll be leaving now hime, punishment?" Virgo asked as she cocked her head to the side.

Lucy grimaced at the fact that the spirit had to ask that in front of the other mages. Though they were slightly used to the strangeness of spirits, working with Yukino, they had never heard of one that asked for punishment before. It was enough to make Sting have to stifle a snicker.

"No, no punishment," Lucy said while still completely embarrassed. With a nod the stoic spirit left.

"So," Sting started with a triumphant smirk on his lips, "you punish your spirits? Isn't that a little-"

He was cut off as Lucy yelled "Lucy Kick!" and slammed her foot into his solar plexus. He went flying a few feet as he clutched his stomach. He had no idea she could kick so hard. Not many people did.

"I do not punish my spirits! She just always asks me that! Got it?" She yelled at the downed dragon slayer.

At this time, the other mages were laughing along with Frosh. Lector, however, was not happy with her. "How dare you kick the Great Sting Eucliffe? You should apologize to the greatest master that Sabertooth has ever had!"

Lucy just waved him off. In her humble opinion, the guy deserved much more than just a kick to the stomach. And although this was entertaining, she was still very curious about the two keys that were in the pouch on her belt. She felt the need deep in her gut that she needed to make the contracts sooner rather than later.

"Is it okay if you guys leave for a little? I kinda want to form a few new contracts, but I would prefer it if I was alone." She politely asked the members of the rival guild who had remained standing.

They looked at each other with concern. They weren't positive that they should be leaving her alone. Not when she just managed to get back onto Earthland.

Sting was the one who voiced their hesitance. He managed to stand up and said "No way in hell, Blondie. Last time you were left alone, you disappeared for three months. Your lion spirit has already gone to your guild and told them that you were back. If you disappear again and on our turf, do you know what Fairy Tail would do to us?"

Lucy pouted, but she knew that they were just concerned. It would turn out badly if she disappeared on their watch. Natsu would probably destroy the guild looking for where she had gone. But at the same time, Lucy knew that she wasn't going to be disappearing again.

"Fine, but back away a bit, I don't know how big these spirits are." Lucy negotiated.

With a nod they began to back away. Bring familiar with Yukino's spirit Ophiuchus and Pisces; they gladly gave her plenty of room for the summoning.

When they were an acceptable distance away, Lucy took out the two silver keys and started to look over them. She still had no idea what spirits that she was going to contact, but she needed to know that before she started the summoning.

She gasped when she deciphered what the keys were. A wide smile tugged at her lips as she looked at her audience. They to seemed very curious to see what two spirits Lucy was about to summon. She especially looked at the two dragon slayers. They would be quite interested in one of the keys.

Her look turned devious as she weighed the two keys in her hands, decided which one was worth summoning first. It was a hard decision, but at the same time easy. Either she would enjoy their shocked expressions, or she would have to let her own curiosity get the better of her.

Stretching the first one out into the air and taking a bracing stance, Lucy decided to save that one for last. It would be more rewarding that way. And everyone always said to save the best for last.

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**A/N: Thank you all for reading, and please let me know what you think.**


	4. Chapter Four: Feathers and Scales

**A/N hello! I am back with another chapter! I would like to thank Zades, Dyeni, Coolanime14, Bentears, and Jennifer for reviewing my last chapter. I hope that everyone enjoys this chapter. **

**Disclaimer: I do not, nor will I ever, own Fairy Tail!**

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Chapter Four: Feathers and Scales

In a clear voice that radiated power, Lucy said "I am the person who connects the road to the stellar spirit world. Thou shall respond to the calling and pass through the gate. Open the gate of the phoenix, Phoenix!"

Light pooled around her, and Yukino could feel the amount of magic that opening this gate seemed to soak up. All the younger spirit mage could do was watch in awe. She even mumbled for the ears of the people around her "I don't think I would have enough magical energy to summon that spirit! It seems to need even more magic than a golden key."

The others seemed taken aback by that bit of information. They didn't think that keys existed that needed more magical power than a zodiac keys. It caused them all to watch what transpired even closer. Rufus once again memorizing what was going on.

With a loud caw, a flash of light was seen in the sky. What came out was a bird, but the entire body was covered in flames. Even with that, there was so much detail as it circled the skies above them that they could swear that they could see every feather that was carved out of the fire. It circled down before coming to a landing before the one that held her key.

"Hello Phoenix, I am Lucy Heartfilia, and I would like to form a contract with you." Lucy said with a smile as she looked to the Phoenix. It surprised her that the flames that seemed to be burning brightly were not hot. Even when they were in close proximity to her own skin.

The stellar spirit nodded at her words, accepting the offer of a contract. "I am the spirit of the constellation Phoenix. With my flame I can heal any injury and give antidote to any toxin. I can bring those on the brink of death to full health, but that is also with a large toll on your own magic." It spoke in a deep feminine voice that resonated around the clearing.

"When are you available to be summoned?" Lucy asked. She was thinking about the uses of this spirit. It would help to not have to rely on Wendy for the healing in the group. If the sky dragon slayer was not there, this new spirit would be an excellent way to help both herself and the others.

"I am able to be summoned any time but the second new moon of the year, unless it is an absolute emergency. I also am not a fighting spirit, so do not call me out and expect me to battle." It said smoothly.

Lucy nodded as she produced a pad of paper that she used to record all of her contracts. When she was done scribbling she nodded at the spirit and said with a large smile "Thank you. It is wonderful to add a new friend to the family. Is there anything else that I need to know?"

Though birds cannot smile, Lucy could swear that she saw the smile of the phoenix in the fiery depths of the eyes. "No. I shall return to the spirit world now. I do believe that you have enough energy left to summon up that other key." In another bout of sparkles, the spirit had left.

Jumping up and down in excitement, Lucy quickly put the key onto her key ring before moving onto the next key. Once again glancing to the light and shadow dragon slayers, she smiled at them and winked.

"I don't think I like that look she just gave us!" Sting said nervously.

Orga laughed at him. "Are you kidding me? I can't wait to see what this key is, that last one was off the charts!"

"Yukino, are you alright?" Rogue asked the speechless mage next to him. He even extended his hand out to touch her shoulder.

She looked at him and nodded. She still was unable to speak. She knew that she was close to her spirits, but she had never conducted a contract like that. She had always tried to stay formal with her spirits, but Lucy was different. It was more like she was watching someone make a friend. There was no air of being the master around her. It was like nothing that Yukino had expected. She now understood why Lucy's spirits were so overly devoted to her.

Looking back at Lucy, they all saw that she was once again in her summoning pose.

Again she spoke the formal incantation. But this time it ended in a way that caused all of the Sabertooth mages to stare in unbridled surprise. They couldn't believe their ears.

"Open, gate of the dragon, Draco!" Lucy said, her voice echoing ominously around the training grounds. In the moment before the magic took hold there was absolutely no sound. None of them even dared to breathe.

In a giant flash of silver, and a midnight blue summoning circle, a towering beast came through. It was a dragon that towered above them, even higher than they were used to with the snake charmer spirit of Yukino's.

It was a midnight blue dragon with a silver underbelly and eyes. The horns that winded their way above the head of the dragon also seemed to gleam silver. So did the spikes that lined the back and tail of the beast. It grinned at the mages around it, clearly at ease with being the center of attention. The magic power that radiated off of him and through Lucy was staggering.

The dragon slayers had gauged that his power rivaled the dragons that they had fought during the eclipse incident. They gulped and stepped back, unsure if they could put up a good fight against the dragon. And in that moment they also realized that Lucy was now probably able to defeat them if she really wanted to.

"Master," The deep gravelly voice of the dragon washed over the mages. He bowed his head, extending one of his large forelegs that was outfitted with silver claws that were long and sharp enough to rip a human apart in seconds.

"Please, don't call me master, I would rather we be friends. I'm Lucy Heartfilia, and I was hoping that you would make a contract with me." Lucy said in her same bubbly voice. She was hiding the fact that keeping his gate open was literally eating up her magic. She did not even know how long she could keep it up for or if she could sustain the magic necessary for one of his attacks.

"Very well," the dragon inclined his head, "I am Draco, the dragon of the stars." He formally introduced himself.

Lucy nodded and got ready to write down what she needed to know. "When am I able to call you?" She asked.

"In this form I am only available twice a month. The time in between summons is of no importance to me, and this time will not count seeing as it is to form the contract." The dragon spoke lightly.

"You said this form, my I see the other one and can you tell me the limitations on that one?" Lucy asked the dragon.

With a wicked grin spreading across his muzzle, showing the sharp pearly teeth, he said "I have two other forms." He then changed into a man that stood taller than Laxus, and just as well built if it was possible. "In this form I am the dragon slayer of the stars. You can call this one out only once a month if needed. Each attack will be taken from your magic." Then he began to morph again; this time into a tiny version of the original dragon.

Lucy couldn't help herself. She let out a girly squeal that forced the boys to wince and cover their ears. She couldn't help it. Plus she felt the much smaller drain that this form was taking on her magic. It was about the same as if she was summoning Plue.

Laughing, Draco spoke in the same deep voice "In this form I can do my dragon attacks, but on a smaller level. I do not take up as much energy, unless I attack that is. And you can summon me anytime. I fact, I would like to be able to explore this world for a bit like this. I have not been summoned to this world in nearly a thousand years. I can travel as a companion with very little use of your magic. If you so chose, that is."

Lucy was ecstatic. She clapped her hands in excitement once she was done and said "Wow! That is amazing. I can't wait to work with you, and of course you can travel out like that whenever you want to. In fact, if you feel like it, you can even open your own gate; Loke does it all the time so I wouldn't mind. Just make sure to be mindful of the time and place. He sometimes 'forgets' what is considered okay."

The small dragon chuckled before he bowed once more and shimmered back into the spirit world.

Lucy was just about to jump up and down again when she suddenly felt very dizzy. Those two had to have been two of the most powerful spirits she had made a contract with. It was only her resolve to make sure that she looked strong to the five mages behind her that kept her from passing out right there and then.

"Wow, Lucy you are amazing!" Yukino praised as she walked towards Lucy. The others followed the girl, but didn't agree or disagree. They were very surprised that the Fairy Tail mage could not only summon one spirit that would have been too strong for Yukino, but two of them in a short period of time.

"Not really," Lucy brushed aside the complement. Though, inside she was allowing the other girl's words to stroke her ego a bit. It felt good for someone else to see that she really did have a lot of magic power.

Though, admittedly, she knew that her power had almost doubled because of what the Spirit King had given her. She only wished that she had been given time to warn her friends so that they didn't worry about her. But it was too late now.

While she was caught up in her mind, Lucy also couldn't help but wonder what this meant for her other keys. She knew that as she grew in strength so did they, but she didn't know what those changes might have been. Shrugging her shoulders at herself, she decided that she would ask them later.

"The next train to Magnolia leaves in an hour; I think it best that a few of us escort you back to your guild." Rufus said once they were leaving the training grounds, recalling the train schedule with ease.

"I can go by myself!" The girl all but bit his head off for making such an offer.

"I did not say that you couldn't. But I also think that you are forgetting about what we talked of earlier. I remember clearly hearing Sting say that we were staying with you so as to not earn the wrath of the fairies when you disappear in another pillar of light." Rufus sighed.

"Oh," Lucy said as she nervously laughed.

The Sabertooth mages couldn't help but be a little confused about her sudden mood changes. They had been happening all night, and yet it still confused them when she flipped the switch from angry to happy or the other way around.

"Yukino and Orga will escort you back, and I will not take no for an answer." Sting announced. "And I will also be letting your guild know that you are coming, even if your spirit already did that."

Yukino nodded with excitement while Orga mumbled something about how Sting shouldn't order him around so much. Even if he was the new master, the lightning god slayer knew that he could take him on. Lucy, seeing that she didn't have a choice, reluctantly agreed with him.

Once on the train, it seemed that Orga fell asleep almost instantly. Yukino seemed to be shifting nervously in her seat.

Lucy noticed this, but was trying not to say anything about it. But it finally got to be too much. "Is there something that you want to say?" She asked the other mage.

"I know that you said no last time, but I wanted to offer you my keys again." Yukino said as she fiddled with her hands.

"I can't! I know that you care about your spirits, and I couldn't break those bonds of trust!" Lucy explained.

"But, you are by far the more powerful mage; you should be able to bring the zodiac together. I saw that today. I know that they would be in better hands if they are with you." Yukino argued.

"And what would you do? They are what make you a mage." Lucy asked, trying to get her point across.

Yukino seemed to blush at that. "Well, you see, lately Rogue had been helping me learn new magic. I've gotten fairly good at it too. I wanted to make that my main magic, but in order to do that I have to stop relying on my keys. And that means giving them away. You would still be the best choice." She pushed her case.

With another sigh Lucy sat up straight. "You are still learning that magic though. You might need your keys. As long as your contracts are still there, I will not take them away from you." She said firmly.

Yukino just nodded in defeat. She knew better than to press any further. The decision was made on both ends. But Lucy didn't know the solution that Yukino had planned. Even if she loved her keys, she thought it was clear that Lucy cared for them even more, to the point where she had called them a family.

The rest of the train ride went by in silence. Lucy had been exhausted the entire time, and couldn't fight the sleep any longer. She fell asleep just as Orga had. That left the other celestial spirit mage to watch over the two sleeping mages. Not that she minded. It was relaxing to her.

Yukino was glad that it wasn't Sting or Rogue on the train. Either one would have been reduced to a puddle on the floor. It might have been funny to watch at times, but she really didn't feel like being puked on while getting Lucy back to her home. Though, she wouldn't have minded Rogue. He was always much better than Sting.

Just thinking about the shadow dragon slayer brought a blush to her cheeks. She was finding it harder to deny that he had feelings for him. And with no more distractions available to keep her mind off of him, she couldn't stop thing about it. Yukino let out a sigh; it was going to be a long train ride.

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**A/N Thank you all for reading! It really means a lot to me! And please review as well! I like to hear what you all thought. And I welcome criticism too!**

**I also know that I should be working on my two other stories, so just to let those of you out there who were wondering know, I am having a small slump with them and will hopefully post soon!**


	5. Chapter Five: Home

**A/N Hello everyone! I am here with another chapter. Yay! Thank you to Coolanime14, Dyeni, Darkwarrior1010, Guardian of Heaven, Bentears, Ebon fire Red waters, and FairyTail123 For reviewing! It means a lot to me!  
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**One last thing, I have been asked by a friend to write a Fairy Tail and Ghost Hunt crossover. Since I was already going to be writing it, I was curious to see if people wanted to read it. I have a poll set up on my profile to see if I should post it in this site or not. Please let me know what you all think. Thank you!**

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Chapter Five: Home

Lucy woke up when the train came to a stop in Magnolia station. If woke up was the right term. It was more like she was startled by the not so gentile shaking that Orga gave her. When she felt it, her body went into overdrive and she had aimed her 'Lucy Kick' at him. Only his reflexes were much better than Sting's, so he easily deflected it.

"Maybe I should go home before the guild. I could use a bath," Lucy nervously mused as she started to turn away from the guild. She also wanted to change out of the ball gown. It was attracting a lot of attention, and she didn't need that at the moment.

But as fate would have it, one impatient lightning god slayer was not going to let her do that. "No, you go to the guild so that we get to go home faster." He grunted at her as he took her arm and none too gently pushed her along the path that lead to the guild hall.

Lucy groaned and sagged, her shoulders slumping as she leaned a little too far down than what was deemed appropriate for that type of strapless gown. Not that she cared. She was raised in gowns such as the one she had on, if she wanted to, she could have exhibited pristine posture with ease. It was just because she was rebelling against the god slayer ahead of her that she slumped the way she did. It was also helping the hide the nervousness that she felt.

She had no idea how the guild was going to react. She knew that Levy would hug her so hard her lungs wouldn't be able to bring in oxygen, Natsu and Gray would also hug her but not as hard, Erza would smash her head into her armored chest, and that would hurt a lot, and Mira would welcome her back with a smile and a strawberry shake. Just the thought of those guys made her smile. But she didn't know how the guild as a whole would react. They could be really hard to predict at the best of times.

As if sensing her distress, a small poof of sparkles happened and Lucy felt a comfortable weight on her shoulders. Draco had finally decided to come out.

"I just want to let you know that I talked with that lion of yours, and he suggested that I not be there right away. Something about dragon slayers and their tendency to over react at anything dragon related." He reported in a lazy voice.

Lucy laughed a little at that. It was one way her nervousness could start to dissipate, and the dragon spirit knew that she need a good laugh. "Then maybe you should come out tomorrow after they get used to me being back. I'm sure that they will love to meet you, Wendy especially." She said.

With a nod and a toothy grin, the dragon shimmered back into the spirit realm. His words had helped greatly, but she was still very nervous. They had been without her for three months; they were bound to over react in some way.

Within a few minutes she was standing in front of her guild doors with the two Sabertooth mages flanking her. They both planned on going in too. Orga was hungry, so he figured that the least Fairy Tail could do to repay him for escorting Lucy back was feed him. Yukino rather liked Fairy Tail, and so she wanted to socialize a bit.

Standing straight, Lucy fixed her dress before she reached out and opened the door. She expected to see the guild in its usual brawl, but what was actually there drove her to tears.

Loke had told the guild she was on her way back, and so they had gone into party readying mode. Across the beams on the ceiling they had hung a banner that read 'Welcome Home Lucy' and everyone was silent when she entered, no doubt the dragon slayers had smelled her coming, and had cheered the moment they saw her.

Sure enough, after taking two steps into the guild, a blue and orange streak bombarded her and hugged her with so much emotion that not only could she not breathe, but she was forced to the floor. Not that Lucy cared; she wrapped her own arms around the shorter girl and hugged back just as tightly, deciding that she would live without air for a minute or two.

"Let her breathe shrimp," an all too familiar voice said gruffly. Levy untangled herself from Lucy and shot a glare at the iron dragon slayer.

When the spirit mage looked over to him to nod thanks, she could see the amusement in his eyes. But he returned her nod with one that welcomed her back. Not that anyone could tell that was what it meant but her. He had kept his arms crossed and a scowl on his face.

Lucy almost didn't catch the blue blur that rammed into her breasts screaming incomprehensibly about fish and crying his eyes out. She stood up while she cuddled with the exceed, happy that she could do something for him. After a few more seconds he left to tell Carla how happy he was that Lucy was back, even if the white exceed had been there the entire time.

And next up was her team. Natsu and Gray were literally tripping over themselves to get to her. Much to the amusement of everyone, they both got to her and hugged her at the same time.

Tears of happiness were flowing down Lucy's cheeks as she accepted the warm and cold embraces. More than anything, even if she hadn't known she was gone for three months, she could feel the love radiating from everyone in the guild. It was a love that touched her deeply, and seemed to lighten her soul.

Natsu and Gray were suddenly and violently pounded to the ground as the Titania of Fairy Tail crushed Lucy's head into her armor. Lucy had the foresight to close her eyes right before impact. With a smile she thought that so far everything had happened just as she thought it would.

Pulling away from the Erza, Lucy continued to walk in. Something in the back of her throat had seemed to stop her from making any other sound besides a laugh here and there.

Nodding to everyone who greeted her, and ignoring the various nicknames given to her (Blondie, Bunny Girl, Cos-player) she made her way to the bar. Her face lit up anew when she saw Mira standing there, a strawberry shake sitting on the counter.

"Welcome back, Lucy," the bar maid smiled.

Lucy stopped at the bar and looked at everyone once over. She then saw Master Makarov was standing right next to her. Looking at his silly grin and that stupid hat that he always wore, Lucy managed to clear her throat of the offending lump.

"I'm home," She said solemnly, her eyes radiating warmth.

There was a burst of cheering, and the party started in full swing. Yukino and Orga had the sense to stay at the bar with Lucy and away from the side where Cana had started a drinking game. The rest of Fairy Tail could care less that there happened to be two tigers in there with them. But Makarov had done the right thing in thanking them for bringing Lucy home.

Orga was pleased when Mira gave him enough food to satisfy a slayer of any kind before he had to ask. Even if he liked the food back at Sabertooth, he did admit that Mira's cooking wasn't half bad. Mira took the praise with a radiant smile as always.

Team Natsu, and Wendy who was now staying as close to Lucy as possible, had surrounded the celestial spirit mage, and were now going to get some answers. The master, who was sitting on the bar, was also close enough to where he could ask questions as well.

"Lucy, where have you been? We looked everywhere!" Natsu started the questions with a pout. Now that he was no longer scared that she was in danger, he was depressed that it had to have been Sting and Rogue that found her. They would probably hold it under his nose the next time he saw them. Which, thinking about it, should be at the next GMG that was coming up in a month.

"Sorry," Lucy said as she rubbed the back of her neck, "it really has only been a day for me."

This time, the mages around her caught the deeper meaning in the words she spoke. They all seemed to breathe in at that and lean back as they waited for the rest of what they knew would be an interesting explanation. The reaction only worked to intensify the confusion and curiosity in the Sabertooth mages. They both really wanted to know why that little fact happened, and why the other fairies seemed to know what she meant when she said that. Also why it seamed o be so important to everyone there.

"That would have been your third meeting with the Spirit King, right?" Gray asked. Of course he went straight for the million jewel question.

Yukino gasped, forgetting that she was drinking at the time, and found herself choking on her drink. She just couldn't believe what was just said.

Orga, being the insensitive brute that he was, zapped his fellow guild mate with his black lightning to stop the choking. The sad thing is that it worked. And so Yukino looked up at him with a grateful look in her eyes that he simply grunted at. That was enough for the white haired mage to know he cared.

Turning to Lucy, who had been watching her with some concern, she asked "You have met with the Celestial Spirit King?"

Laughing nervously and scratching the back of her head, Lucy replied "Well, I kind of met him when I saved Loke. He had been banished from the celestial realm, and I somehow managed to convince him to give him another chance! And then after the seven year skip, he and the rest of my spirits invited us over to the spirit world. That was when we learned that a day in the spirit world equals three months here."

By the time she was finished explaining, she was rendered uncomfortable by the look that Yukino was giving her. It was a mix of awe and admiration that made her understand how Gray sometimes had to deal with Juvia. She didn't really like being looked t in awe. Not when she saw herself on equal footing with the other mage.

Thinking that she still wanted out of the dress she was in, and wanting to go home to her bed, Lucy suddenly had a realization. "Oh my God! What about my apartment? I haven't paid rent for three months!" She practically yelled as she stood up quickly.

Mira and Master laughed at her. Then Erza said "Lucy, we have taken care of it! Consider it a welcome home present from us to you."

Lucy was moved. They did all of that for her? Wiping her eyes before any tears had the chance to come out, she murmured her thanks before leaving the guild.

She didn't know that the Sabertooth mages were still at the guild.

The two powerful lightning mages (Laxus and Orga) were drinking together and talking about when they could have a real fight between them to see who was the stronger one. Even ig Laxus won last time, Orga thought that now that he knew how strong the dragon slayer was, he could win. Both also seemed to be blissfully unaware of the gigantic fight that Natsu had started in the guild that was now getting even rowdier.

Master Makarov smiled at the chaos that ensued before him. He knew that he would be lecturing them later about the destruction they were causing, but for now he was just relieved that the guild seemed to be back to normal. And just that thought made him smile even wider.

Yukino had been scribbling on a piece of paper since she came back from a quick walk that she took just a second ago. No one really paid any attention to her, and she was fine with that. With her heart feeling both heavier and lighter, she handed the note over to Mira in the think envelope and asked "Could you give this to Lucy-san tomorrow? I think that it is about time we left."

Mira nodded with a smile. Smiling herself, Yukino grabbed Orga and both of the Sabertooth mages went back to the station so that they could go home.

Back at her apartment, Lucy had just gotten out of the nice long bath she had prepared for herself. She sighed as she got herself ready for bed. Though it had not seemed like it at the time, it had been a really long day for her.

Right before she snuggled into her blankets, she felt a small weight on her bed next to her. Peeking through one eye told her that it was her newest dragon spirit. All of that known, Lucy fell sleep with a bright smile on her face. She felt loved and protected as the nothingness of sleep claimed her.

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In the mountains outside of Fiore:

A loud rumble could be felt on the mountain side. An avalanche bombarded the top of the mountain as the stone walls of the prison finally crumbled away. The groan and shuttering of the mountain rocked though to the summit. It would have disturbed any humans living nearby, however, a deep seated instinct that lived within the people of this region kept them away from the mountain for some reason.

Pale eyes that had been trapped in the darkness for almost a thousand years blinked at the light. It hurt to look into the brightness of day. Lungs expanded to take in the first real breath of fresh air that it had gotten for the longest time. Ears listened to the howling of the wind and the far away sounds of birds.

Pale skin stretched as a sharp toothy smile come onto its face. It had been three months ago that he had felt the first pulse. He waited patiently for the second. He knew if he had felt it, that it would be time. And he was rewarded.

Knowing it was finally time to rid himself of the long rusted chains that used to hold him immobile, he had begun his desecration of the prison that woman had put him into so long ago. After a day of work, he was finally freed of the cavern. His magic once again replenishing, he now just needed to wait until his body adapted to the world outside once again.

"Little Lucy Heartfilia, so it is you. I can feel your magic. It is about time that I come for you, wouldn't you say?" He smirked at the thought. "Time to come out of your nightmares and into your waking life," he cackled.

Pure evil and malice dripped off of him as he sat in the sun. Pale and sensitive skin was only just getting used to the warmth that it brought. Now was not the time to get to the precious little mage. He knew that he had to plan out his attack.

He knew that he would need her alive at the very least, but only for a little while.

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The Celestial Spirit Realm:

The king paced in his quarters. He knew the gamble that he had been taking when he offered Lucy the chance at the two silver keys. He also knew that it was better for it to be her than any of the other mages that shared the same type of magic. This way, the advantage was in his hands. It wasn't as if she wasn't going to reach this same level with the addition of a few other keys anyway.

He had given her the drink that was supposedly a test, but honestly, the test had truly been the barrier that had blocked the cave entrance. The liquid was simply water that was brought down from the spirit realm. The barrier had been what had caused her increase in magic. It was designed that only those with love in their pure hearts and celestial magic running through their veins could enter, and if deemed fit by the king, they would leave to gain in strength and power.

The occupants of the spirit realm were not made aware of where the barrier was, so as not to give a mage an unfair advantage. That was why Leo had reacted adversely to the increase in power. It had been far too long since the king had found a human with the right heart and the right magic. It had been when she had risked her own safety for that of the leader of the zodiacs that he had taken a keen interest in her.

He didn't doubt that she would be a strong ally when the need arose.

When he felt the very walls of their realm tremble, he knew that the prison had finally failed. It had lasted so long that it didn't surprise the king when it did fall. He was surprised that it had taken almost an entire day for the walls to fail and for the monster within to be released.

Before him stood a few of the spirits that had made contracts with the blond human girl. They knew what was being forced onto their master, and they were worried for her well being. But at the same time, there was a sense of pride in knowing that their master was deemed worthy enough by the king for this situation.

"You must prepare her for the coming fight." He announced. As the others nodded and it looked as if they wanted to say something he added "But, you must not tell the human girl what she is being prepared for."

Shock greeted him as the spirits digested his words. They all hated keeping things from Lucy. But they would obey the king.

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**A/N thank you all for reading. Please review, fav, and follow! And please vote in the poll if you are interested. Thanks for reading, until next time, Snowleopard314**

**Also, this is the last of my rough draft chapters that I had almost prepared. So my updating might be a bit longer from now on. Just giving you guys a heads up!**


	6. Chapter Six: Surprises

**A/N Hello everyone! I am now setting things up for a nice fight in the future and I am starting to show the back story, muahahaha! Now that I am done being evil, *cough cough* I shall go in with the story. Please enjoy and read and review. Also, something very important is in the bottom note and I think that everyone needs to read it! Thank you to all that have reviewed, and enjoy.**

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Chapter six: Surprises

The next morning, Lucy woke up to find her apartment full of people. Well, not full, but her team had broken in again. Natsu had even gotten under the blankets with her on the bed. It was probably a good thing that Draco left for the spirit world right after he saw Lucy fall into REM stage sleep. Though the Celestial Spirit mage had felt loved the night before when she came into the guild and everyone welcomed her back, she was not especially happy to wake up to the sound of someone destroying something at five in the morning!

Giving Natsu her famous 'Lucy Kick' and ignoring his various complaints, she went out to the other rooms to see that Erza and Gray were messing up her kitchen, again! Already they had gotten most of her pans lying on the floor instead of in the cabinets as she had placed them earlier.

"What are you guys doing in my house?" Lucy demanded as she attempted to but a leash on her temper. It really wasn't working.

"We wanted to see you and walk you to the guild this morning!" Natsu announced in his happy way. A huge toothy grin stretched across his face as he addressed his partner. He was, as usual, completely clueless about the atmosphere in the room and oblivious to the fact that the blond haired mage would have preferred it if she had gotten to sleep in.

Taking what Lucy hoped was a deep calming breath, Lucy said "I don't care; I want you all out right now! I will meet you at the guild, but until then I want you all out of my house." When no one moved she then resorted to sternly shouting "NOW!"

Seeing the golden glow around her that was caused by her temper, Erza and Gray thought that it would be wise to leave her be. They both took hold of Natsu and dragged him out, but only after the pink haired dragon slayer had forced Lucy to promise to hurry up and get to the guild as soon as she was done.

"Man she was grumpy," Gray said as he rubbed the back of his head. He was oblivious that the itch was caused by a certain water mage who happened to have stalkerish tendencies. Unfortunately, he had also left his shirt in the middle of Lucy's couch, not that he had realized that yet anyway, giving the rain woman even more to fantasize about.

"We are acting a little clingy," Erza noted with her head down, "I mean, for her it was only a day. That really isn't long enough to miss someone."

"But we always break into her house!" Natsu argued.

Erza nodded her head "Yes that is true. And I know that she doesn't mind that. She might yell a little, but she always lets us stay. That is a sign that she doesn't mind if we break in on a daily basis." She said it as if it was common knowledge, not really knowing that it was just the blond's way of giving up because she knew that they would always break in whether she wanted them to or not.

"Not to mention she usually only yells at Natsu. Only sometimes will she yell at me when I accidentally strip." Gray thought out loud.

"Ice Pants, what are you saying? Are you saying that Luce like you better than me?" Natsu demanded as he lit his fist on fire.

Gray had incased his own fist in a layer of ice as he retorted "No shit that's what I'm saying Ash Brains!"

The three mages barely noticed that they had already walked into the guild and already they were starting a fight. Erza picked up on what was around her faster than the boys and was already on her first slice of strawberry cake for the day.

As they continued to fight, Lucy finally made it in. And once she was within the doors, she flung the shirt that Gray had misplaced in her apartment with most of his clothes that were now thrown haphazardly around the room. She was grateful that Natsu was fighting seeing as Draco had accompanied her to the guild and was now resting around her shoulders. She didn't want to be bombarded with questions the moment that she walked into the room.

But, upon her arrival, the other three Dragon Slayers in the guild had all seen and smelled the new spirit. And they all wanted to know what was going on with it. Wendy had seen the little thing and thought that it was adorable. Gajeel wanted to know if it knew where Metalicana was. And then Laxus was heading over because he wanted to know if that was really what all dragons looked like, or if Blondie had gotten herself a fake chibi dragon from somewhere.

"Bunny Girl, what the hell is that?" Gajeel grunted when he got to where Lucy had parked herself at the bar. Mira had also snuck in closer to hear what was going to be said, and to deliver the note that Yukino had left for Lucy.

"This is Draco; he is one of my newest spirits. As you can tell, he is the celestial dragon." Lucy said with pride.

"Greetings," the dragon said in his rumbling voice, he then looked at the two first generation dragon slayers and added, "son of Metalicana, daughter of Grandine."

Wendy finally found her voice, "Um, ex-excuse me, but d-do you know my mother?" She asked shyly with hope brimming in her innocent eyes. She wanted desperately to know how the sky dragon was doing. Any information at all would have been good enough or her.

"Yes, I knew your parents. But that was quite some time ago. It has been nearly a thousand years since I last had the option of coming here to Earthland. I had long lost contact with most of the dragons." His voice seemed to echo. The four had not realized that the entire guild had stopped what they were doing to listen to the dragon spirit.

"So you are a dragon?" Natsu clarified as he walked up to the group.

Draco rolled his eyes as he answered "Yes, son of Igneel, I am a real dragon. I remember teaching your father magic, he was a great pupil. All three of your parents were."

That caused some gasps, even from Lucy, she had only just gotten Draco, and so she didn't know a whole lot about him yet. It wasn't like Virgo or Loke that she had gotten to know. With Draco and Phoenix, everything was new.

Finally Laxus has enough of being in the back ground and asked "Why are you tiny? I mean, we have fought dragons in the past, and they were much bigger."

"Laxus," Lucy whined as she attempted to swat at him. His comment had made her angry because she was very protective over her spirits an he was not showing Draco the respect that he deserved. "Draco had three forms. This is the smallest one." She explained.

"Oh, cool! Can you show us his other forms?" Natsu jumped out of his seat in excitement.

"No!" Lucy answered in a stern voice.

"Aw, why not? You know that I've wanted to fight with a real dragon! It's just mean to have one and not let me fight it!" Natsu accused in his childish voice. He seemed really discouraged because he thought that Lucy was just holding out on him for some reason.

Lucy pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed before saying "Natsu, I can only summon his real dragon form twice a month and his dragon slayer form once a month. I don't want to waste it in case we might find that we need a dragon for whatever reason."

The dense idiot did not understand, but that was expected. As he continued to pout, Mira noticed that Draco had been looking at her for quite some time. Well, not at her, but at the package that the Take Over mage had been meaning to give to Lucy. Just seeing that told the bar tender that Draco was highly intelligent and sensitive to anything that involved his master.

"Lucy, Yukino left this note for you before she and Orga had to go back." Mirajane said with her customary smile.

Lucy took the envelope and gasped when she felt three keys fall into her hand. "Oh, no she did not!" Lucy mumbled as she read over the letter. A tear dripped past her guard at the sacrifice and gift of friendship that Yukino had just given her.

Draco had known what they were all along. As with most celestial spirits, h could feel the presence of the keys before he actually saw them. He had known that the keys were there and without a contract. He could even sense that they all were waiting rather impatiently for Lucy to summon them so that they could form a new contract.

"Lucy, what is wrong?" Erza asked as she glared her way into the circle around the blond mage.

"Yukino terminated her contracts and gave me the rest of the zodiac plus the thirteenth key! I knew that she wanted me to have them, but I had never thought that she would do something like this before." She was willing to just have the ten, but Yukino had made this sacrifice, and from the note, there was no way for her to form the contracts again. The full zodiac set was now Lucy's.

And of course the younger mage had taken what Lucy had to say seriously. Lucy remembered saying that as long as they were still in a contract, she would not take them, and so Yukino had terminated the contracts in order to give them to Lucy and reunite all twelve, or thirteen, zodiacs. It almost reminded Lucy of a fairy tale for some reason. It was a dream come true in a way.

Of course, in celebration of Lucy collecting all of the golden keys, the guild was served another round of ale to most of the patrons. There was also a giant brawl. No one really noticed when Lucy took Draco and the keys out to the back of the guild so that she was facing the ocean. Lucy felt as if she should meet her new keys as soon as possible. She also wanted to make sure that they would not call her master. It was something that was important to Lucy, even if the others didn't understand why she did things differently.

Never again did Lucy ever want to see one of her friends used as a tool for some higher gain. She never wanted to see any of her spirits used as shields. Lucy, herself, always felt so guilty when they got so injured that they were forced back to the spirit world. She felt like it was her fault for not being strong enough on cases like that.

Of course the three were eager to form the contract. They had also been talking with the spirit king ever since Yukino decided to give their keys to Lucy. They knew how important it was to make sure that the girl was prepared for what was going to happen. But they also were going to let Leo and Capricorn take care of training her. They all knew that out of all her spirits, those were the two that were best suited for the task. Capricorn was an expert on building magic capacity, while the lion spirit could easily teach her how to fight in hand to hand situations.

Just when Lucy was about to go back into the party, Loke came out of his own gate to speak with her.

"Lucy, my love, I have some wonderful news for you!" The lion spirit purred as he took her hand in his and kissed the knuckles.

Lucy was very confused on why he was acting so flirty, but she also decided that it wouldn't be wise to ask such questions. If anything, he would just spout on and on about his undying love for her. "What is it, Loke?" She asked with a hint of exasperation in her voice.

With his flirtatious smile intact, he said "Well, Princess, the King would like to congratulate you on collecting all of the golden keys, and we, your spirits, have decided to train you! Isn't that wonderful?"

Lucy thought that over for a bit. She had never really trained with all of her spirits, only Capricorn. It sounded like it would be a good thing to do. Not to mention that it would be nice to not just wing it during a fight. If Lucy could organize what worked and what did not, she knew that she would be able to be better in fights; it would save magic and energy during actual battle situations as well.

"Alright, that sounds like fun!" She voiced her opinion openly to her spirit.

"Great, and before I forget, I was also told to give you this. Having all of the golden keys opens many new doors. You may not be able to use these right away, but the Spirit King is confident that you can learn them. Capricorn will help you with them if you need it. But you should also read it. Though they may be legends of the celestial realm, they are lessons that must be learned." The lion spirit said with a seriousness that was almost unbecoming of him.

What the young spirit mage did not know, was that the leader of the zodiacs had just given a clue to figuring out why they were going to train with her. Written in the pages of the book held a secret so old that it was already forgotten in human memory; it had the dangers that the blond would have to face sooner rather than later.

With tears of gratitude in her chocolate eyes, Lucy said "Can you thank everyone in the spirit realm for me? This really does mean a lot to me."

"Of course, Princess," Loke said as he disappeared with a bow and a fancy flourish of his hand. It was clear that the spirit was just as cocky as ever.

Lucy looked at the leather bound book that was just given to her. It looked absolutely ancient. Covered in tanned leather and with some sort of golden calligraphy on the top, it had to have been one of the most beautiful books that Lucy had the pleasure to hold. And as Lucy looked at the text that was write on pages so thin that one could see through them, she could see it blur into a cipher every once in a while. Lucy suspected that only the holder of the thirteen golden keys could read it. After all, that was what Loke had told her the book was for.

"The lion was correct," Draco suddenly said from her shoulder. Lucy nearly jumped out of her skin. She had forgotten that the spirit was on her shoulders the entire time that she was out in the training grounds. "You should read the entirety of that book before you start your training. It will help you a lot more than you realize now."

Lucy wanted to ask the dragon what he meant. But, the pesky flying lizard poofed away before she could even try and ask him what he had meant by that. It was so frustrating to say the least. Lucy wished that spirits could just answer a question clearly.

Looking at the book she decided that she would just have to read it herself and find out what it was that they were trying to tell her. It looked as if the book was going to be interesting anyway, so Lucy decided that it really wasn't that big of a deal.

Going into the guild and ignoring the brawl that had chairs being thrown and punches flying, Lucy took a seat next to her favorite book worm and began to read the book that Loke had given her. Her chocolate eyes were wide in wonder as she read the first few pages. Soon, not even the noise of the guild was making it into her mind. Only the words that were on the page as they played out in her mind could hold her attention.

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**A/N Okay people, I have a very serious question. Who should I pair Lucy with? I want to add a little bit of romance in this, but I have absolutely no clue who to set her up with. So I have decided to ask all of your opinions. I know that I do not want it to be Gajeel or anyone who is not in the guild Fairy Tail, (so no Sting or Rogue) but that is all. If you have a suggestion on who, I would absolutely love it is you would review and tell me who. I will probably take all of the suggestions and start up a poll of sorts, probably just a vote through the reviews, to see who would work for this. And another warning is that it will be a slow romance that is not the center of the story. Thank you so much for reading!**


	7. Chapter Seven:Spells,Legends,and Origins

**A/N: Holly Crap! I wrote a ton! I hope that you all like this. It is the book and setting up for the main conflict. Though, there is still a long way to go. I would just like to say that I did not write out the entire book that she read. I paraphrased the important bits because no one wants to read a real novel in a chapter. And I'm too Lazy to actually write that much. Thank you too all that reviewed. I don't think that we need a poll seeing as there was an overwhelming response of NaLu. Sorry Dyeni, you were completely outvoted. If anything is confusing, please just ask and I will try and explain it. And I do love reviews!**

**I do not own Fairy Tail!**

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Chapter Seven: Spells, Legends, and Origins

"Lu-chan?" Levy called for what had to have been the hundredth time that day. She had gone looking for her friend during the party only to notice that she had her nose completely shoved into a book. And here Levy had once thought that she was the only one who could get so immersed into a book that she didn't notice anything else that happened around her. Avery dangerous habit that had become safer due to a certain Iron Dragon Slayer that was now there to guard her.

Curious, Levy took a seat next to Lucy and started to read over her shoulder. Only, for whatever reason, she was unable to tell what was actually written. From what she could tell, it not only was written in a language that she was not familiar with, but it also seemed to be written in some kind of code.

Watching, she saw Lucy gasp, and then suddenly she started to flip through the pages as if she had on her gale force reading glasses. The fact that the book was glowing as well, told levy that something having to do with magic was going on. And she wanted to know what.

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_**The Thirteen Golden Keys of the Ecliptic Zodiac**_

_Within these pages lie the recorded history of the thirteen keys along with the spells and techniques that the holder of all thirteen may learn to use. Only the one in possession of all thirteen keys and with corresponding contracts may read what is written in these pages._

_The first section of this book tells of the forging of the keys. The second tells the ongoing history of the keys and their single holder. And the final section will describe the spells and techniques that the one with the thirteen keys can master._

**_Section 1: The Keys Forged_**

_In a time before the dragons descended on Earthland, there was a civil dispute going on in the celestial ream. The stars that had long lived peacefully in the skies had begun to turn on each other. Order had been long lost as the current King of the realm had dimmed past the point of no return._

_Right there is the first lesson of Celestial Beings; all stars will eventually fade away. After millions of years, the first star to claim the realm had passed on. And he left the Celestial world in the hands of his two sons. Without a structure of laws, each brother took a stand and saw that they would have to fight to see which got to govern over the realm they had grown up in._

_The eldest thought that they could come to an agreement, he and his twelve generals stood tall and tried to establish peace within the realm of the stars. His younger brother thought that it was unfair that he had to back off and watch as his brother gained loyalty among the stars._

_He had his top general go against the elder brother's twelve. But during the battle, the general was torn due to the strong bonds between the twelve and the elder brother. Knowing that he would never find bonds like that working for the youngest, he switched sides, becoming the thirteenth general of the elder brother._

_It wasn't long after the betrayal that the younger of the brothers left the realm of the stars to come down to Earthland in order to try his luck becoming the king over the humans. In his mind, such pathetic life forms that could only live for a century needed to be governed by something stronger. Something that would last for what he believed to be eternity._

_He cut his ties from the celestial realm in order to forgo the pain of fading from existence due to the separation. He was powerful enough to replenish his large magic stores with the energy and radiation that the stars sent towards the globe that he had claimed as his own. He and his followers, known as fallen stars, began to try and take over the human world._

_Knowing that his younger brother was up to something, the newly appointed Celestial Spirit King started to plan on ways to stop his conniving plans. Unfortunately, the stars could not stay on Earthland long without severing their ties with the spirit world. That was something that they were not willing to risk._

_They found their answer in the guise of a simple blacksmith. The king descended and spoke with him. In exchange for knowledge and magic power, the blacksmith would create keys for the thirteen generals and a few of the other spirits. However, even with the immense power that the king possessed, he himself could not have his own key forged. It would be too risky for those who sought only to gain power. So he created a system of bonds and trust that ensured the spirits under contract of a key still had their own freedoms._

_And thus, the keys of the celestial spirits were forged and the contract system was founded in order save Earthland from the greed of a fallen star._

**_Section 2: The Ongoing History of the Thirteen Keys_**

_So far there have been only six holders of all thirteen of the ecliptic zodiac keys. And it seems that each time they have been collected, the thirteen are required to do something in order to save the world of humans._

_Everett Smith was the first Celestial Spirit Mage, and he was also the one who forged the eighty-eight keys. He made the first contracts; those not based so much on trust, but on necessity. It was a time where the fallen stars were wreaking havoc among the human world, and the celestial spirits felt that it was their responsibility to straighten out the mess that the King's brother had created._

_Working together, he learned all there was to know about celestial magic and he could open many gates at a time. When the time was right, they ascended towards the fallen star._

_It was an intense battle. But it ended in the entrapment of the fallen prince of the stars. They could not defeat him, nor could they reason with him, so they sealed him in a prison so that he could no longer mess with the world that belonged to the humans. In doing so, they also sealed away the other fallen stars that had become his inner circle._

_This done, Everett took on a pupil by the name of Azaiah. He taught the young boy all he needed to know of the keys and stressed the importance of the magic's survival._

_Once his training was complete, Azaiah was given the full set of keys and was told to leave his mark on the world. Working with the spirits he helped to rebuild what was lost in the wars. He was known very well for his kindness and for all of the help that he would give to others. He was not known much for his work on the battle field, but he didn't need to be. There was a tenuous peace in his time, and he had done everything in his power to try and strengthen that peace so that it would last. Even then he was not nearly as magically skilled as his predecessor anyway._

_As his life began to fade, he took on twenty-six apprentices. When it was time to pass the keys, he separated them in order to give all of his pupils the spirits he felt they would get along with the best as well as take the best care of. He knew that if the evil was ever to break free of its seal, there needed to be more than one Celestial Spirit Mage at a time so that the magic never was forgotten or lost. If it was lost at a time of great need, the man knew that Eathland would not survive the fallen stars.  
_

_As the keys spread, and more humans learned the art of summoning spirits, the thirteen golden keys were not fully reunited. As they aged, the personalities of the stars also seemed to change somewhat. The kindness that they had found in their first few masters was not present all the time. And so both the keys and the King took precautions in order to ensure their safety. Also, more of the lesser keys were forged so that others of that constellation could be summoned to the human world._

_After hundreds of years, the keys finally found their way to the newest key holder. Her name was Astrid Constantia, and her time was one of great need. Four of the five fallen stars had broken from their seals. Astrid was tasked with the responsibility of making sure that the fifth seal remained unbroken so that the leader of the fallen stars would not reawaken._

_She was not a young woman when she first held all thirteen keys. Her magic could only go part of the way. She managed to reseal three of the fallen, but when she was on her last battle, she was also on her last legs of life._

_Knowing the end was near, she entrusted the task to her only son. His name was Jonah Constantia. He was not strong enough at the time to do any real damage, but he asked the help of the zodiac to train him. It was the first that a human had asked the keys for guidance, and it was a gesture that strengthened the bonds between the keys and their holder. That was a lesson that he learned during his training, the stronger the bonds between spirit and human, the stronger the celestial spirit can be on the human plain._

_When the time finally came, Jonah and the thirteen ecliptic zodiac worked together and were able to seal the last of the fallen once again. He also made sure to strengthen the existing seals so that it would be even harder for the former stellar spirits to escape again. But there was always the knowledge that the seals would not last forever. Nothing ever does._

_Once again the keys were scattered after his death. Having no successor, and not being defeated in battle, the keys themselves separated and hoped that when the time was right, someone would pick up their keys and they would once again be reunited._

_Thousands of years passed before they were reunited. They were passed from and to hand, never quite becoming a full set. Until finally they reached the hands of Isadora Garthwater. Isadora was just a little girl at the time. She didn't mean to collect the thirteen keys, but as fate would happen, they were given to her right before they were actually needed._

_She trained with the keys, not knowing much about magic at the start. But all of her keys could tell that she had great potential. Within a few years, she had mastered most of what they could teach her, and she could summon the entire ecliptic zodiac at once. It was feat that had not truly been mastered since the keys were fist forged by Everett._

_Fate had given her the power, and they keys just at the right time. All five of the fallen stars had found their way out of their seals. And they were now so much a part of this world that they renounced their celestial identities and had created new ones._

_The four that served what used to be the prince of the celestial realm were named Ezekiel, Ambrosia, Lazarus, and Sophronia. Finally, the most powerful of the fallen stars, had given himself the name of Mordachi. Together they formed the five fallen stars, and together, they began to reap destruction on Earthland. They wanted to eliminate any chance that the stars and humans had at resealing them again. They wanted to rule over the humans with a fist of iron._

_Isadora was told of their reawakening. She knew that she had to act quickly. But the army at the time would not believe that such a little girl could hold the key to seal away the evil that had descended upon them._

_And so, with the help of the spirits she had under contract, the girl moved in the guise of a solder. She dressed as they dressed and acted how they did No one noticed who she was as she slowly used the army to get to the place where she could seal the fallen stars. As they were stationed to become the front line of defense, Isadora slipped out during the night to seal away the evil. She as a very stubborn girl and she would not wait for the platoon she was in to go forth the next day. In her mind that would risk too many lives that could otherwise be saved._

_She managed to catch the fallen stars unaware and she quickly began to fight alongside the zodiac in order to defeat them._

_The zodiac was not prepared. They did not know that over the years of being sealed away, the five fallen stars had gained immense power somehow. The keys didn't think at the time that while they were under seal, they had been gaining power instead of staying at the same level that they were at before._

_The battle lasted all night, and in the end, she was only just able to seal them back into their prisons. Only this time, she made sure to imprison them in a way that t would be impossible for the light of the sun or the stars to shine on them. She hoped that this way, the seals would last long enough to weaken the fallen stars as much as possible._

_She scattered her keys then. Before she died, she made sure that the keys were hidden in a way that only a worthy mage would be able to use them. Over time, some of the keys fell into the myths and legends of the land. With no one to witness her fight, it was never recorded in the history books. Some keys were sealed, and others were hidden._

_Eventually, as time went on, the spirits began to be treated more like tools and less like partners. The pride of the Celestial Spirit Mage was dying out. And so was the magic. There are significantly less of these mages now than what there have been in past years. It is no wonder that the keys are being put into one hand again._

_Only in recent years have some been found. Finally, after almost a thousand years, all thirteen of the keys have found their way into the hands of Lucy Heartfilia. Her history is still unfolding._

**_Section 3: Spells and Techniques_**

_There are five Techniques that a Celestial Spirit Mage can use._

_The fist is just the simple summoning of the spirit. Focusing their magic, the mage becomes a vessel that is used to open a pathway to the spirit world so that the spirit can appear in Earthland. This is the type of magic that most Celestial Mages use in order to perform magic. It is widely known and implemented._

_After summoning a spirit, the spirit then uses the key holder's magic in order to fuel their own attacks. Though this form of magic is widely considered to be weak, it actually takes a great deal of magical energy to summon a spirit, and for each minute that the spirit is in Earthland, the magical drain only increases._

_Multiple summons at a time is a very difficult thing to master. Depending on the strength of the spirit, I can double or even triple the amount of magical energy that is consumed. If not done properly, or attempted without the magical energy that is required, this could mean a complete drain on the mage's power supplies which can lead to death.  
_

_In order to expand their magic, and to prepare themselves for calling out multiple spirits at a time, a Celestial Spirit Mage must continuously work with their spirits and work on enlarging their magical container through mediation._

_The second technique that can be used is a partial summoning. In using this technique, the user is able to save magical energy while still gaining power from their spirit. This method uses an incantation to create a vessel out of the Celestial Spirit Mage in order to channel certain powers into their own bodies so that they can use them. This is a less known technique that requires complete trust from both the spirit and the mage in question._

_While working in the technique, the mage will say the partial incantation that the spirit gives them. Their outward appearance would then change and they would also be able to use the powers of that the spirit lends them._

_An example of this can be described with a mage and the leader of the zodiacs Leo the lion. A pair of orange lion ears would appear on the head of the mage, and their clothes would shift into something that resembles business clothes. For a man that would be a suit, or a woman, the same only more feminine. Also, they would be wearing sunglasses. Then if they wished to, the mage could call upon Regulus and use the light magic the same way as Leo would._

_Only through training with the celestial spirits can a mage perfect this technique, and it is mostly forgotten because of the lack of trust between the spirits and their key holders these days._

_The third technique is more of an ability type magic and not a holder. There are a set of three spells that a Celestial Spirit Mage can learn. The most powerful being Urano Metria, and the least powerful being a form of enhancing ones melee fighting that does on have a proper name. These spells have mostly been forgotten through the ages._

_The first of the spells that is enhancing ones physical capabilities on the battle field is often referred to as Stella Accessurum. In order to master this style of fighting, the mage must focus their magic and then have it flow through their veins with their blood. It will cause the user to have a slight glow about them. And during a fight, it will add strength and damage to hits, as well as make the body more durable to enemy hits and magical attacks. However helpful this technique is, it is not as powerful as the Regulus that the lion constellation uses._

_The second is called Stellam. It is the power of a single star instead of the eighty-eight. Using spell, the Stellar Spirit mage is able to produce a beam of power from their hand that can strike an opponent with the power of a single star. To cast this spell they must simply say the incantation and focus their magic in one of their hands._

_Finally, the strongest spell that a Celestial Spirit Mage can learn is Urano Metria. It harnesses the power of the eighty-eight stars and focuses it on a single person. In doing so, that person is usually drained of magic and of the strength to fight. I order to cast the spell, the mage must recite the incantation listed below while feeling the power building both inside of them and outside as the stars manifest._

_The incantation is:_

Survey the Heavens, Open the Heavens...

All the stars, far and wide...

Show me thy appearance...

With such shine.

Oh Tetrabiblos...

I am the ruler of the stars...

Aspect become complete...

Open thy malevolent gate.

Oh 88 Stars of the heaven...

Shine!

**Urano Metria!**

_The fourth technique that a Stellar Spirit Mage may be able to master is the art of Slaying Stars. This is considered a lost magic due to the fact that only the holder of the thirteen keys is allowed to learn it, and even then it is by chance and choice, and it can take years to learn. Also, it is only by the discretion and experiences of the mage and their spirits on whether they can even begin to learn the art of slaying stars. And even the name has a fault. Even if their title would be a Star Slayer, the magic they learn really only slays Fallen Stars._

_So in essence, they would be The Slayer of Fallen Stars, but, for convenience, the one who learns this magic is called a Star Slayer buy the people who inhabit Earthland.  
_

_However, how one learns this magic is widely unknown. As it was, only three of the past holders of the keys knew this magic, or had the chance to use it. The legends claim that a Celestial Spirit mage must come face to face with a Fallen Star in battle and survive in order to unlock this power that seems to stem from something within themselves._

_After this power is unlocked, the thirteen ecliptic zodiac and the other spirits can help in training with the mage and helping them manage the power that is unlocked. Nothing more is known about this magic._

_The fifth and final technique that a Celestial Spirit Mage in possession of at least one golden zodiac key is known as the Forbidden Technique. If the spirit and the mage have complete trust in each other, and have a bond that is next to impossible to break, there is a way that the mage is allowed to summon the Celestial Spirit King. In an act of pure faith in one another, they must break the golden key together. This is a technique that has never before been done, and may never need to be. It is reserved for only dire situations, and even then it must be an emergency among them._

_The breaking of a golden key will forever close that path between the celestial world and Earthland. It would be saying goodbye to that spirit forever. For an unbreakable bond, to become separated forever is by far too great a sacrifice up to this point for a mage to go through with this technique._

* * *

Lucy finished the book and closed the cover. She still didn't notice that Levy was sitting next to her as she thought over what she had just read. Loke had told her that it could help her in more ways than one, and Draco had agreed with him.

But she also remembered that they told her that she may not realize what the lessons were that she needed to know right then and there. So she shrugged it out of her mind as she accepted that there was probably going to be something later on in her life that she would face and then she would be reminded of what she had read about in the book.

"Lu-chan, what were you reading?" Levy asked as she looked at her friend. Her intelligent eyes peered at her friend in pure curiosity. Never before had the bookworm come across a book that was impossible for her to read. It almost hurt her pride that she couldn't crack the code as she looked over her best friend's shoulder.

"Hmm," Lucy said as she looked to her right and finally noticed that Levy was sitting right there net to her. "Oh, um, it's a top secret book that is only allowed to be read by the one who holds all thirteen golden keys." She answered with a nervous smile on her face.

Levy gasped as she heard what her friend had said. "What was in it?" She asked excitedly.

Lucy looked at her blue haired friend with guilt in her eyes. She knew that she wasn't supposed to tell anyone what she had just read. So she answered truthfully "I'm sorry Levy-chan, but I think that it would go against Celestial law if I told you. Please forgive me." She truly did hate that she couldn't tell her best friend what she had just learned about her magic.

Levy pouted, but she understood where her friend was coming from. There were some books out there that were not meant to be shared with everyone. So she distracted her friend by asking about the book that she was writing. She was still hung up on that cliffhanger that the blond had given her before the incident with the pillar of light.

* * *

In the Mountains:

As the thing that had gotten free looked up to the sky, he smiled a smile that was filled with so much malice; one might think that he was trying to take the sky down. It had not been long, but already the rays of the star known as the sun was helping him regain his strength.

He was still sitting there as four figures walked up to him. Each looked so very different from the next, and all seemed to share a paleness that came from being entrapped away from the sun for centuries on end.

The shortest of the four ran up to his sitting frame and exclaimed "Mordachi, finally all of our seals have been broken! We are together again!" Her dark red hair held black highlights as it glinted in the sun. Her eyes were entirely black, without the white of a human's eye. And her cheekbones were highly angled, giving her an even more inhuman look.

"Sophronia, learn your place," The other woman of the group growled. Her hair was the contrast to the other ones, being green and white. But the eyes were the same. Her features were not as angled, but almost rounded.

The men behind them stood straight and without moving, one with a head of long blue hair and the other with one of spiky brown. The blue haired one looked as if he could have come from under a rock where one might find a lizard. His equally black eyes had an oval of green with a slit in the middle that showed his reptilian nature. The other had pointed features, almost as if they were going to stretch out to become a shout of some sort. He also had claws that came from his fingers.

"Her excitement is warranted, to think that we were almost apart for a thousand years. That was the limit of that little mage. It is a shame that she is no longer around. I would have put her in her place." The man named Mordachi said.

Everything about him was pale. He did not share the darkness that the others had, on the contrary, his hair was pure white, and so were his eyes, with the exception of his pupil and the pail outline that was the iris. He was even dressed in white armor. And on the breast plate of his armor was painted a golden crown. The one that he believed was meant to be his and not his brother's. And he had come up with a plan over the years of imprisonment that would give him just that.

"We should descend on the Heartfilia girl before she becomes a problem." The man with the blue hair and green eyes spoke.

"No, Lazarus. I have a better plan for the little Mage. But first she must gain in power. She is no good to me as weak as she is now. I plan on using her." Mordachi said to his second in command with a sadistic lit in his voice.

The man tilted his head before smirking himself. They were all smirking. They knew that if there was a way for the prince to win, this time it would work. This time, it had to work. There would be no more chances after this.

Mordachi laughed at the thought in his head. He was going to be sure to make the little Celestial Mage go through hell and back only to be manipulated into his plan. He would win this! And he would use Lucy Hartfilia to do so.

* * *

**A/N: Thank you all for reading. Once again, if you have any questions feel free to ask. And please review and tell me how I am doing. I know that I just made up the entire history of the spirit keys and just dumped it on you. But I really like the story that I came up with. Thanks! And if you didn't know, the thirteenth general was Ophiuchus.  
**


	8. Chapter Eight: An Announcement

**A/N: Okay, so I have a really good idea coming up for this story, so I have been neglecting the others and I have been writing this one non-stop. I can't help it, until the extent of the scene I am most excited about comes, I will not be able to concentrate on anything thing else... I can not thank all of you who reviewed enough. It made me really happy, and it is the reason I am not waiting until after the weekend is over to post this! **

**I do not own Fairy Tail. the only thing I own is my crazy imagination that loves dramatic situations!**

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Chapter Eight: An Announcement

Lucy smiled as she spoke with Levy about her novel. At least there was something that the two of them could talk about. And Lucy was relieved that her friend didn't pressure her more about the book. Lucy honestly didn't know what she would end up saying if the petite blue headed girl pressed for further information.

They were deeply engrossed in the topic of the main villain when the splintering of a nearby table rushed them out of their thoughts and the girls looked to see the Titania of Fairy Tail stand up excitedly as if she had just remembered something.

"Lucy! Your birthday had passed when you were in the spirit world! I forget that I had gotten you a present!" She nearly yelled as she marched up to Lucy. And then the scarlet haired knight added "Please, hit me for forgetting such an important day! I can't believe that I had forgotten something of such gravity and importance!"

Lucy found herself sweating nervously at her friend's antics. She would never actually hit Erza, she was for too afraid to even think about doing something like that. So waving her hands in front of her she said "No, no, it's fine! I wasn't even here, you guys didn't have to do anything!"

Though, Erza would not take an answer like that. Summoning her own ex-quipping powers, Erza produced a neatly wrapped box that was about the size of her open hand and then passed it to the blond celestial mage so that she could open it. By this time Gray and Natsu had somehow appeared by their side as well. The two boys were equally as excited to see Lucy open the gift. Though one could tell that Gray was nervous because his shirt had already been discarded on the floor.

As Lucy started to carefully unwrap the present, Erza explained "We got these while on a mission and knew that you would like them, even if we really don't know what they are. I'm sure that you can tell what they are fairly easily."

Not knowing what to expect from what she had just been told, Lucy continued to open the present and was floored when resting inside the box on top of tissue paper were two keys. With gratitude flowing out of her in waves, Lucy looked up at her friends and said "Thank you. Thank you all so much." And right after she said that a tear of happiness fell from her eye. It really was almost too much. She felt completely loved and cherished. She loved her friends so much, and she knew that they felt the same way about her too.

"Come on, Luce, how about we see what spirits you got!" Natsu said as he pumped his fist in the air.

Nodding her head in agreement and muttering "Right," she got up and for the second time that day she went over to the training grounds. She was honestly surprised at the amount of magical energy she still had. This morning she had summoned three golden keys and had formed contracts with them, and yet, she felt as though her magic stores were almost completely full. She supposed that was the product of the power that the Celestial Spirit King had granted her when she had contracted Draco and Phoenix.

Looking over the two keys she was very happy with what she saw. Taking the first one out, she called out "I am the person who connects the road to the stellar spirit world. Thou shall respond to the calling and pass through the gate. Open the gate of the shield, Scutum!"

In a shower of silver, a literal shield was floating in front of Lucy. It was polished silver with a face in the center of it. The face was of a young warrior in a helmet. The workmanship on the shield was absolutely stunning, and Lucy couldn't help but find herself gaping openly at him. It was the type of shield that a solder would use, only Lucy could sense that there was more to this spirit than just being a shield.

"Hello Scutum, I am Lucy, your new friend, and I was wondering if you would like to make a contract with me?" Lucy asked with a sweet smile on her face.

The shield seemed to observe her for a moment before saying in a very formal tone "Lady Lucy, I would be honored if you would allow me to become your shield in times of need. I am available any day that you need me, and I can not only protect you from physical attacks, but there is a secondary barrier that will encase you while you are using me that will, for the most part, prevent magical attacks from inflicting damage onto you. Also, in cases of emergency, I may be able to pass through my own gate in order to protect you."

With another smile Lucy said "Thank you Scutum. I will be sure to call you out when I need you." And with that the shield seemed to bow before once again disappearing from Earthland in another show of sparkles.

Taking out the other key, Lucy examined it before looking around nervously.

"What is it Lucy?" Erza asked from where she was standing. She was highly impressed with the shield spirit. It was like nothing else she had encountered in her weaponry search, and she was almost envious that Lucy could use it due to being a spirit mage and she could not. But it really didn't matter that much. After all, Erza knew that she had armor that would probably work the same way on a whole.

"This is a key for the constellation of the swordfish, I'm not sure if I need water for it to work or not. I mean, I don't need it for Pisces, but I do for Aquarius. I suppose I will just have to try, right?" Lucy asked with a nervous smile on her face.

"Of course, and we will be right here in case anything happens." Erza nodded with a fond smile on her face.

Once again nodding and stepping into her summoning stance, Lucy called out "I am the person who connects the road to the stellar spirit world. Thou shall respond to the calling and pass through the gate. Open the gate of the swordfish, Dorado!"

What came forth was not what Lucy was expecting at all. She had thought that it would perhaps be a literal swordfish, or the like. But what actually came through was a sword. It was made of metal that was tinged blue, and the sides of the blade had tooth like barbs that were meant for causing high amounts of damage. Proving that it was the right constellation, there was a dark blue swordfish symbol etched into the flat of the blade right after the hilt of the sword ended. It was thin enough to be considered a rapier if not for the barbs on the side of it.

"Master," the sword started in a deep voice. There was a heavy accent to his voice that seemed very foreign.

"Oh, Dorado, please don't call me master. I really don't like it when you spirits do that. I am your friend, not your master. Would you like to make a contract with me?" Lucy asked the sword that was floating before her.

"Yes, Lucy, I would. I should tell you that you may summon me whenever. I am the sword of the stars and can be used in whatever way that you see fit, and whenever you need me, feel free to call me out. And if you are able, Scutum and I make a very good pair in a fight." The sword said.

Nodding her head once again, Lucy finally reached out and gripped the hilt of the sword. When she did she could feel the warmth that was in it. Even if she was not nearly as good at handling swords as Erza was, she could feel that Dorado would be able to guide her and through training he could teach her how to properly wield him. It was a very interesting feeling she decided as she released him back into the spirit world.

Turing around, Lucy tackled all three of her team mates in a hug. She was so happy for the new additions on her key ring. Thinking about it, it was getting rather cramped. Lucy wondered if she needed to get a new one soon.

"Hey, you four, Master has an announcement!" The deep voice of Laxus called over the training grounds.

"Well, it's best not to keep him waiting, wouldn't you say?" Lucy asked with a big smile as she got off the ground and started to skip back into the guild. She was just so happy at the moment that she didn't even care what was going to happen. It would be worth it, whatever it was. As long as she was with her family, she thought that she could handle anything.

Once everyone was in the guild, Makarov jumped onto the banister on the second floor and yelled "Listen up brats! Next month is the Grand Magic Games! I want the same teams as last year; however, since Mystogan cannot make it this year, the second team will be Laxus, Mira, Gajeel, Juvia, and Cana. Go train, and be back in exactly two weeks. No exceptions! Oh, and just in case, I want Elfman and Levy to also be training just in case one of you are injured too badly!"

The guild was all up and buzzing in excitement at the announcement. They had won the previous year, and that just made the topic of training even more important to the mages of Fairy Tail. This year was sure to be even better now that Sabertooth was on speaking terms with them and Raven Tail had been once again recognized as a dark guild.

"How about we go and train by the beach like we tried to do last time?" Erza suggested to her team and Wendy.

"I'm all fired up!" Natsu announced as he punched his lit fist into his other hand to show just how true that statement was.

"Hey, flame brain, I bet I will beat you in training!" Gray boasted as he smirked. Just thinking about beating Natsu was enough to put him in a good mood.

"As if, stripper," Natsu scoffed.

Lucy laughed at the two of them. Of course they would turn training into some sort of competition. That was just like the two of them. Not that Lucy would have them any other way. "That sound great, I can go off and train with my spirits. They want to teach me new spells and what not. Maybe you can also teach me how to use a sword some time, Erza?"

Ignoring the two fighting boys, Erza turned to her blond teammate and said "I think that would be a great idea Lucy. That way you can improve on what you have to while these two work on what they need and it is always good for experienced sword fighters to go over the basics every once in a while. It helps to keep us in good form."

And thus, training had begun. With Wendy and Levy, the six, eight if one counted the exceeds, made their way to the train the next morning in order to find a beach that Fairy Tail had yet to be band form. That was no easy task for the knight and the celestial spirit mage. But they someone how managed when Levy found a privet beach for rent that would suit their purposes perfectly.

Almost instantaneously, the boys took off in a race to see who could run the fastest and the longest. Laughing, Lucy looked up to the three other girls and said "I'm gunna go over there in the shade and call out my spirits, you guys do whatever you have to do."

"Alright, when we are done for the day, we will all congregate and say what we have improved on and what we still need work on." Erza announced as she ex-quipped into her Heaven's Wheel Armor and began to summon swords. She wanted to increase her endurance for summoning her weapons and holding them at the ready.

Wendy and Levy started to confer with each other, each not completely sure what to do. The two smallest members of the team agreed to train with each other to attempt and raise their magic and to think more strategically.

Lucy had settled into her stance and had called out Leo and Capricorn. After telling them the situation and how long she had to learn the new techniques Capricorn came up with a schedule for her to follow, as well as a strict dietary policy. Lucy was nervous over what that last part was about, but she didn't question it. For the time being she would put her complete trust in training with the goat spirit. After all, he had probably done this before.

In the mornings she was going to work with Leo on learning melee and other fighting techniques along with learning to use Stella Accessurum to put the power that she was lacking into her moves. Then right before lunch she was going to mediate for an hour with Capricorn, and then finally, after lunch she was going to learn the other spell, Stellam, as well as learn to partially summon a spirit. Of course, before she was allowed to go to bed, she was also required to do another hour of meditating.

Looking over the schedule, Lucy almost wished that it was flipped. She didn't know if she had the energy in the mornings to deal with sparing with the flirtatious lion. But, once again, she yielded to her spirits. They were the ones training her after all.

Just as Loke began his lesson, a deafening crack forced her attention away from the leader of the zodiac and to her other partners. It looked as if Natsu and Gray had ran right into Erza as she was in a state of deep concentration and in retaliation, she sent all of the swords that she had out raining down at the two. They were now learning the importance of dodging.

Loke nearly fell over in his laughter at the comical expressions that both Gray and Natsu sported. Lucy sighed and shook her head. Levy looked extremely pale as Wendy seemed to want to go over and help them, but she did not want to get caught in the torrent of swords and other weapons that were still plummeting towards the two boys.

"This is going to be a really long two weeks, isn't it?" Lucy whined as she tried not to sob out her frustrations about the dragon slayer and the ice make mage. They both really did need this lesson, but if they got too much brain damage from it, neither would really learn from it.

"Oh yeah, and by the end of it, you will be ten times stronger!" Loke declared as he nudged his key holder a little. This was the Fairy Tail that he had grown up with, he knew that through all of this craziness, the entire group would pull closer together and come out more powerful. The lion knew that Lucy knew this too. It had always happened that way. It was what made this guild such a special place. There was no changing it either.

* * *

**A/N: I would like to say right now that I am not using the GMG just because I can. Well, I partially am, but the reason I am doing it here is because the evil will once again be there at the games, and this is a good way to show that she is learning and improving her magic. And it builds suspense in a way. I also want to try and write battle scenes, I really don't do a ton, so this will be good practice. And i have something big planned for the GMG's...me and my _evil _mind have cooked up quite the plot. Muahahahaha!**

**Oh, there will be an adorable Nalu moment next chapter, I promise! And please review and let me know how I am doing. I really do love it when you guys review. **


	9. Chapter Nine: Training Confessions

**A/N: Okay, here id my next chapter! I hope that you like it, and I have a nice little scene in here that I believe most of you will like. Thank you guys for Reviewing. Again, I love it when you do. It makes me want to bake all of you guys cookies, but with my luck they would end up as charcoal...Please read, review, fav, follow, and of course, enjoy the story!**

**I Do Not Own Fairy Tail!**

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Chapter Nine: Training Confessions

At the end of the first training day, Lucy was utterly exhausted, Gray and Natsu were both covered bandages, and the other three girls looked like that had seen better days. Over all, the group was quite worn out when they entered the meeting that Erza had demanded they come to when they were all done training for the day.

"Wendy, Levy, what did you accomplish today?" Erza asked them to begin the conversation.

"We both worked on the attack aspect of our magic and the defensive properties by sparing with each other." Levy answered as smartly as she made it sound like they did more than they actually did when she phrased it that way, and it boosted her own ego a bit.

With a nod, the scarlet knight looked towards Gray and Natsu and shot them a glare that did the exact same as asking them the same question. Lucy almost giggled at the fact that Erza had both boys trained with glares and threats. It was kind of adorable in a way that the two strong boys would have fallen like that.

"We worked on our endurance," Gray answered unsurely.

"Speak for yourself stripper, I worked on my speed," Natsu proclaimed with one of his fists raised above his head in a fist pump.

"And you, Lucy?" Erza asked before the boys could get into an argument. She had seen quite a bit of flashes from the Celestial Spirit Mage's section of the beach, and she was highly curious to know what she had been up to. She also remembered what her friend had said earlier about learning new spells and what not.

With a proud smile Lucy announced "I learned the two lesser magic spells of the spirit world, and I have begun to work on partial summons. I can show you my progress on the latter if you want me to." There was a happy tone in her voice, and everyone was curious to see what she had meant by a partial summons. None of them had ever heard of it before.

So when they showed her the interest, she took out one of her golden keys and called out "Gate of the ram, lend me thy power, Aries!"

As she finished the incantation, she was engulfed in a golden light. They watched with excitement for the light to disperse, and when it did, they all gasped. There was Lucy, but she had a set of horns on her head that resembled the ones that were from Aries. Also, her once blue outfit now had pink edges around it that looked as if it was from Aires's wool.

"That's not the best part," Lucy said as she faced away from them. Her voice was still the voice that they knew, but it had almost blended with the voice of her soft spoken ram spirit. "Wool Bomb!" She spoke, and from her hands pink wool came out.

Turning back to her friends, she dismissed the zodiac spirit and looked up with a smug smile on her face. What she was not expecting was the Titania to run up to her and smash the spirit mage into her armored chest for a hug.

"Lucy, that was simply amazing!" The armor clad woman said. "Clearly you are taking this training very seriously, and I am so proud of you!"She was gushing praise that Lucy had wanted before, but now really didn't based off of the reaction that Erza gave.

Trying to calm down her friend, Lucy patted Erza on the back as she begged the others to save her. But they just smiled nervously and watched as they were too afraid of Erza's wrath to try and pry her off of the suffocating celestial mage. Not that Lucy blamed them much. If the roles were swapped, she would have done the same.

Finally released from the death grip, they all said their goodnights. But Lucy wasn't really tired. Physically and magically she was out, but her mind was still working on processing everything. It was amazing what had happened in three short days. She had never expected to learn so much and to gain so many new spirits in such a short amount of time. And on top of that, she had been chosen once again to represent the guild in the Grand Magic Games. At this point, if Makarov had told her that she was going to be in the next S-class trials, she wouldn't have been surprised in the least. That was just the kind of week she felt that she was having. It was almost too much if she was being honest with herself.

"Can't sleep?" A relatively calm voice asked from behind her.

Not bothering to look, she nodded her head. She knew that voice anywhere. It was the voice of the one who was always there to save her. It was her partner and best friend. The voice belonged to the one and only pink haired dragon slayer named Natsu.

Taking a seat next to her, the dragon slayer took moment to just sit there in silence with her. It was something that the blond was not completely used to seeing. She knew that he had something to say, and so she took the opportunity to rest her head on his warm shoulder as a cold ocean breeze blew through their hair.

"It was just like when Lisanna died." He finally said as he looked at his hands. "Only, this time I was right there. I was right there when it happened, and I couldn't protect you. I know now that you didn't need to be protected, but at the time I didn't know. And then you vanished. Just like she did, you left without a trace. Just like Lisanna, just like Igneel." His voice was so soft compared to what it usually was.

Lucy could feel the emotion as they rolled off of him. And it only made her feel guilty that she had caused him so much anxiety and anguish when she disappeared. "Natsu, I really am sorry. I didn't know that was going to happen. If I did, I would have warned you. I'm sorry Natsu, it won't happen again." She whispered to his sensitive ears.

"Lucy," He mumbled her name. She waited for what seemed like hours before he spoke again "It was worse than when she died. It was the same feeling, but stronger. When you left, it felt like half of me went with you. Nothing was alright. Lucy, don't go anywhere that I can't fight alongside you, okay? Don't go where I can't protect you."

Lucy felt something stirring deep within her at his words. Never would she have thought that he would be the one saying them. Never had she ever thought that hearing those words would strike her so deeply in her heart. "Natsu," she whispered, "we will always fight alongside each other," she promised as she pulled away and smiled at him.

Just like that, the normal Natsu with his goofy grin came back as he happily said "So here we are going to train extra hard so that never happens again. I will always be there to protect you Luce and you will be there to support me to. We are partners after all."

"Yeah," Lucy agreed as she laughed. Part of her wondered if he even realized what he had confessed to her earlier. He could be so innocent at times, so child like. It amazed her whenever he said something so serious like that. Not that she didn't think that he was able to, but just the fact that he let all of the sides of him show was amazing in itself.

"We should get some sleep before Erza finds us out here." Lucy suggested. At just the mention of the S-class wizard, Natsu visibly shivered and stood up.

"Good thinking Luce," He smiled as he ran towards the place where he had been ordered sleep. Lucy stayed there a moment, watching as his scarf swayed behind him like a tail. She couldn't help but think of the number of times that he had been there for her. Yes, he was her best friend, but maybe there was something more than even that.

Deciding that she had to focus on training, and not the confusingly simple mind of Natsu Dragneel, she went to sleep with a smile on her face.

For the rest of the two weeks that they spent training, the three girls seemed to be getting the most out of it while the boys and Erza kept getting into skirmishes that completely put a halt on their own training. Lucy at one point wondered if they spent a third of the training time completely unconscious due to the blows that Erza kept giving them.

She had nearly perfected most of the partial summoning with her spirits. The one that she was almost too afraid to try it with would have to be Aquarius. And so after one attempt where the mermaid spirit yelled harshly at her and swept her into the ocean, she had decided that it just wasn't going to work with her. Lucy was disappointed, but she shrugged it off. It was just the way that the water bearer was.

She had discovered how loyal the thirteenth key was. Ophiuchus seemed to be just as loyal and committed to Lucy as Loke or Virgo was. It was very reassuring that she had another spirit that she could trust with her life like that. And she found that when she partially summoned him, it was a very intimidating sight. The first time she had done it in front of the others she had accidentally scared Levy and Wendy into hiding.

Well, that was one form that he could use when she wanted to scare her opponent half to death. And she loved to powers that she was given while in that form too. It was partly fear magic, party unhindered strength. It felt amazing in a way. But then again most of the partial summons felt amazing to use. It was like she was strong enough to fight instead of just watching the fight.

When it was finally time for Erza to help her out in training, she called out the sword and shield spirits and had Erza teach her how to properly use them. With the knight's help, along with the knowledge that Dorado seemed to pass on to her, Lucy was able to learn to use them effectively in a few days. Though, she was defiantly not on the same level as Erza by far, she could fend off Gray for a little when he was using his Cold Excalibur.

He somehow always managed to get her at the physical strength and overwhelmed her, but Loke had told her that if she just added Stella Accessurum to her sword fighting, there would be a major improvement. Sadly, Lucy was not given enough time to try and master that aspect. Two weeks really was not enough time for training of this sort. She had to promise Capricorn that she would continue the training after the GMG for him to even allow her to leave the beach.

Once they hopped on the train, all eight of the beings present couldn't wait for the games to begin. It would not only tell them just how powerful they had gotten, but it would also tell them how much they could still improve on.

They were meeting everyone inside of Crocus at the bar that they had stayed in the time before. Lucy found that funny. If one ever needed Fairy Tail, all they really had to do is look for the loudest bar fight in town. They were usually the ones behind it.

Once off the train, Lucy felt a comfortable weight settle on her shoulders. With a smile she kept walking, ignoring the new gazes that were not running over her. Draco had made a habit of coming out on his own whenever Lucy got off of a train. The spirit mage wondered if he waited because just like with the slayers, dragons also got motion sickness on transportation. It was one funny weakness to have, that's for sure.

They had barely made it off the train before someone yelled "Hey, Blondie, how's it going?"

Lucy swung around to see the one and only Sting Eucliffe. Though she was almost glad to see him, she did not appreciate his nickname for her. Seriously one would think that they silly dragon slayer would learn after the 'Lucy Kick' that she had given him.

"Ah, it's the idiot," Draco noted from Lucy's shoulders. He didn't bother to hide the fact that he wasn't very impressed with the light dragon slayer.

"Draco, that wasn't very nice!" Lucy lightly scolded the small dragon that was resting lazily on her shoulder. She did agree with him in a sense, but that still didn't mean that it wasn't a nice thing to say. Her upbringing made it so that she didn't approve of speaking about people that way.

"Forgive me, Princess, I do not mean to offend, I am simply speaking what I think. I will attempt to curb my honesty around him in the future, Princess." The dragon spoke so formally that it was almost difficult for her to catch the sarcasm, but it did make her laugh, along with the other five behind her; Gray snickering while Wendy and Levy giggled, Erza chuckling while Natsu just laughed openly.

Even Yukino lightly giggled at the young guild master's expense. Lucy, seeing her friend rushed over and gave her a hug. This caused Draco to take flight to avoid being thrown off. He came to rest on Erza's shoulders, liking the cool metal of her armor. He didn't ask permission, but Erza didn't mind the dragon. She was kind of honored that he would chose her to rest on.

"Lucy, I assume that you got my note?" Yukino asked with a smile.

Lucy nodded, "Yeah, and I wanted to thank you so much. I really didn't want you to, but now that you did, that are really great. If you ever want to speak with them, just tell me and I will summon them for you." She said with a warm smile.

"I might take you up on that one later!" Yukino promised with her own warm smile.

Erza cleared her throat as Sting complained loudly to no one in particular. "Come along Lucy, Master is waiting for us with the rest of the guild." Erza said in her softer voice.

With one last smile to Yukino, and a promise that they would catch up later, she really did love having a friend like Yukino. Lucy was kind of sad that Yukino had given her keys to her, but at the same time, she was so grateful about it, and the fair-haired mage didn't seem to have any regrets about it either.

So Lucy skipped over with her team, Levy and Wendy, and pretty soon they all had made it to the destination they had been told to come to right after Draco and flown back to her shoulders. With Natsu kicking open the doors to announce his arrival, they were greeted enthusiastically by the others.

When master eyed them, Erza gave a subtle nod that made his break out into his big toothy grin. Just looking at it told where Natsu had learned his own grin from, maybe. As they were pelted with questions about their training, they had already agreed that they were going to keep their progress a secret until they got to show off in the actual games.

So Erza made the announcement "If you want to see how much our magic has grown, you will have to watch us participate in the games!" There were a few complaints, but they all happily agreed anyway. It felt so good to be home again for the mages that had been training.

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**A/N: Ah, I enjoyed that chapter. And I kinda love writing Draco. He can be such a smart ass. I only hope that I made the Nalu moment satisfactory. Like I said before, this will be a slow romantic build up, and I want to focus on getting the bad guys in first. This is setting the stage. Please let me know what all of you thought, and if you liked it. I really like knowing what everyone thinks of the story!**


	10. Chapter Ten: Let the Games Begin

**A/N Hello! I was so excited to start posting this one! I think that it is a great chapter and will show some good foreshadowing into the future. Thank you for reviewing, it really did make me happy! I would love to find out what you all think of this chapter, and can't wait until I get to write the conflict part that has been in my brain for the longest time. **

**I do not own Fairy Tail!**

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Chapter Ten: Let the Games Begin

As the eight teams that had made it past the qualifying sky maze, Lucy couldn't help but feel that they were a little bit helpless. Just like last year, Fairy Tail A team had come in dead last. It was kind of embarrassing for the strongest guild. But at least Fairy Tail B team had made it in first. That did reassure her somewhat.

There were very little differences in the teams. For one thing, Twilight Ogre actually made it into the competition. The other change was that both Sting and Yukino were not on the actual team Sabertooth. Sting being the master was not allowed to, and Yukino was still learning her magic so she was not a strong choice to put on the team.

Of course the strange pumpkin head that was Mato was already ready to referee the games, and he was happy about it too.

Chapati wasted no time in announcing what the first trial would be. "We have a special teat for all of you today. The first event of this year's Grand Magic Games is the Magical Carnival Race!" He yelled into the microphone for the entertainment of the audience.

Thinking about it, Erza knew that they needed versatility, so she chose Lucy to participate, much to the disappointment of a certain pink haired dragon slayer who wanted to start off for team Fairy Tail. But he didn't dare go against Erza.

"Alright, here are your competitors!" Chapati announced with pure excitement running in his voice. "From Fairy Tail A: Lucy Heartfilia, from Twilight Ogre: Namur Grout, from Quatro Cerberus: Warcry, from Mermaid Heel: Beth Vanderwood, from Blue Pegasus: Eve Tearm, From Lamia Scale: Lyon Vastia, From Sabertooth: Rufus Lore, and finally, from Fairy Tail B: Cana Alberona."

The crowd went wild as the corresponding mages were teleported into their corresponding places. Then the announcer announced "Your job is to make it through the obstacles while avoiding both the clowns that we have placed to slow you down and the other mages that might try and slow you down!"

As the mages waited, they listened to the countdown. Once the ticker had fallen to zero, they all took off. Though it was a race, they were in a maze type layout with the destination being a lacrima in the center of the arena.

Within seconds Lucy was at her first obstacle. It was a whack a mole game that seemed to want you to use magic. Not really caring if she destroyed the thing, she concentrated her magic in her hand and called out in a loud clear voice "Stellam!"

A golden beam flew out of her palm and hit the target, completely destroying the game in the process.

Up in the booth, the announcers were speechless, and so were most of the other guilds in the stands. The announcer announced what most of the others were thinking at the moment "It looks as if Lucy Heartfilia has used some kind of Celestial ability based magic instead of the normal holder type. She had clearly improved in this past year."

"I truly have never seen that from a Celestial Spirit mage. But it does seem to be based on her star magic. It almost reminds me of the spell that she attempted last year against Flair." Yajima commented as he too watched with interest.

Lucy was not the only one who decimated the first test. Cana also blew it up with her cards, and several others had done something similar to it. It was the fastest way through the obstacle in question anyway.

Lucy was currently running when she heard the familiar call of "Ice Make: Dragon!" and then she saw the ice coming towards her. With a smirk Lucy wondered how his ice sculpture would live up to the real thing, but she did not want to play that card so soon. It was going to be a surprise to everyone but the Sabertooth mages.

"Open, gate of the swordfish, Dorado!" Lucy called without faltering in her step. The sword came into this world already clutched in her hands, and she swung it at the ice sculpted dragon. It shattered under the serrated edge of the sword she carried. When Lucy ran past the crumbling pieces of ice, she saw that Lyon was utterly stunned that she had gotten past his creation so quickly.

He didn't even notice when Lucy ran her fingers over one of her keys silently before widening her stance in anticipation of fighting the ice mage. He thought that it was going to be a one on one fight between him and her, but Lucy had other plans. As he settled into his own Ice Make stance, the ground below him disappeared and he fell. In front of the place where the ice mage had stood now had a bowing spirit in a maid's outfit.

"This should hold him for a minute or two. Punishment, hime?" The stoic spirit asked as she straightened from her bow.

"No Virgo, thank you. You may go back, you too Dorado." Lucy told her two spirits. They gladly left in a shower of sparkles.

She continued, somehow being lucky enough not to encounter any of the clowns that were supposedly trying to stop them. The same could not be said for Cana. She was using her cards to the best of her ability, but things just kept coming at her. She would have preferred a fight with someone who was real.

The next obstacle that Lucy came across was a shooting gallery. It was set up that if she got hit by one of the cork projectiles, she would have t start from the beginning again. If it hit her were the words. It didn't say anything about hitting something else.

Summoning Scutum, she asked him to push his barrier out so that the cork wouldn't get anywhere close to her. He happily complied, and Lucy ran through with the shield out, making a mockery of the trial that was supposed to be a difficult obstacle for the mages to complete.

Making all of the right turns, Lucy managed to finish first as she touched the lacrima and was transported back into the arena. With announcers still talking up a storm, Lucy turned just in time to get engulfed by the rest of her team.

"You know, you should have taught Lyon more of a lesson," Gray reasoned as he looked back to the screens in order to see who would come in second.

"And waste more time? I think it was better just to deter him instead of losing in a race because I wanted to beat someone up." Lucy said as she shook her head. No sooner had the sentence had left her lips than Rufus from Sabertooth reached the lacrima and came in second. He turned to Lucy and gave her a tip of his hat to shoe that he thought she had done good in beating him in this first competition.

"You did great Luce!" Natsu praised as he grabbed her shoulders in excitement. It made the young blond smile along with him. It hadn't quite registered that she had gotten first in the first event of the GMG.

Cana made it in fifth with Blue Pegasus and Lamia Scale just barely coming before her. Sadly, that had everything to do with luck. Where Lucy had run forward and tried her best not to stop, Cana had paused to think, thus giving the clowns enough time to hone in on her and attack.

Once everyone was back, they announced the first battle of the day. It was between Fairy Tail A and Blue Pegasus. And the competitors were Natsu and Ichiya.

Natsu visibly paled before turning green and shaking his head back and forth like a little kid trying to get out of cleaning their room or something of the like. He was only silenced and pushed out into the arena by Erza and her murderous death aura.

Natsu stood on his end of the arena as he watched with uncertainty as Ichiya walked, or more like hopped in his case, out into the arena while posing for the crowd and shedding sparkles. The Fire Dragon Slayer shivered in disgust that he would have to fight something like that.

"Natsu-kun, the smell of your perfume tells me that this will be a most enjoyable fight, men!" Ichiya said as he winked, squeezing a sparkle from him eye.

Trying to keep his own disgust in check, Natsu said "Well, it won't be much fun beating you. I'm sure Erza would be more fun for me to fight. I'm not even fired up." It was the truth. Natsu really did not want to be in this fight at all. He would really rather face Jura or anyone else. This was just torturing him unnecessarily. Cruel and unusual punishment.

Mato finally said "You have thirty minutes to fight after the sound of the gong. If both of you are still standing after that time, then the fight will be a draw and both teams will get five points. Otherwise the winner will get ten points for their team!"

With that done, the gong started and Ichiya took out two vials of his perfume magic and stuck them up him nose. In almost a second he was built even better than Laxus and was twice the size of Natsu.

"Men!" he shouted as he started running towards Natsu.

The dragon slayer wanted nothing to do with the newly buffed up Ichiya. In fact, he began to sprint away from the giant as fast as his legs could carry him. He didn't care how he looked. Ichiya was scary and Natsu did not want to touch him at all!

"So it seems like his speed has improved with the training we did," Erza noted as she watched the fight.

"I think it's just that he wants to get away from Ichiya," Lucy challenged the observation before yelling "Come on Natsu, you can do it! Show him what being a part of Fairy Tail means!" Lucy wasn't sure if it was the right thing to say, but she felt as if she had to cheer on her partner somehow while he was fighting.

Natsu heard Lucy just fine over the roar of the crowd. And so he came to a sudden halt and sucked in as much air as he could before attacking. "Roar of the Fire Dragon!" he yelled as fire spewed out of his mouth and shot in a beam towards the offending mage.

Ichiya was not fast enough to dodge the attack, but as he took it head on, it didn't do too much damage. But Natsu was not going to let him attack! Running while the S-class mage was still slightly dazed, he used his arms and yelled out his next attack; "Wing Slash of the Fire Dragon!"

This flung Ichiya into the brick wall of the arena where it created a large dent where the body hit. Natsu watched, his body engulfed in flames, as he waited to see if his opponent would rise again. He should have expected him too, Ichiya, even with how vile he was, was still an S-class mage, even if most people didn't believe it.

The man did get up, and with two new vials sticking out of his nose too. He was just able to mutter the word 'men' before Natsu had his flame covered fist slamming into his head. Natsu wanted this done, and he didn't even feel the need to waste time by talking to him either.

In the end, the battle was not nearly as long as the announcers had hoped that it would be. In the end Ichiya did get off one attack, but the sent that he had flung at Natsu was highly flammable, and it had burned in the flames surrounding Natsu before it could even come close to his nose.

"Natsu, are you okay?" Lucy asked when she noticed that he was being particularly quiet.

He turned to her slowly, his face still deathly pale before he started to dry sob as he said "Never again! Please Lucy; make sure that they never do that to me again!" He said before putting his head on her shoulder before passing out.

Lucy was stunned by this, and a little ticked that he had decided that she was a pillow. So she said so that he would wake up "Okay, I will do everything in my power to make sure that it doesn't happen, just get off of me before I kick you off of me!"

The threat of bodily harm had him jumping off of his best friend and partner. But he just leaned on the railing so that he could comfortably watch the next fight. It wasn't that big of a deal. Sabertooth easily beat up on Twilight Ogre, and Juvia beat up on the Quatro Cerberus contestant. That left Lamia Scale and Mermaid Heel. Kagura was called out, and she basically sent Yuka back in shreds. It was not a very pretty sight.

And so the fighting ended for the day with Fairy Tail A in first place, followed closely by Sabertooth, and with Fairy Tail B just getting third.

But as they went to sleep and Lucy fingered her keys to thank them for helping her with the events of the day, she couldn't help but feel something was wrong. Though they tried to hide it, she could feel the anxiety coming off of them in waves. It had her thinking that there was something coming. Something that she was not prepared for.

But, she didn't want to get in over her head. There were only four more days in the Grand Magic Games, and Lucy was determined to do her best in them. She had promised her keys that she would train with them afterwards, so whatever it was that was coming, could just wait for the moment and let her sort out everything here first.

But deep down, Lucy wondered how bad it could be if they were training with her this hard. She wanted to get it out of her head, but worst case scenarios were running through her head and leaving pictures that she would rather not see. It haunted her for the rest of her night. As did the feeling that something was watching her.

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Outside the place where Fairy Tail is staying:

Lazarus looked into the window of the sleeping Celestial spirit mage. They had been watching her from the shadows all day, assessing her strength and making plans about what they were going to do with her. Though it bothered him greatly that he had to be the one to keep an eye on her.

The blue haired man knew that she could not sense his presence, but he did wonder if her keys did. And he wondered if they had told her anything. It would be no fun if they came at her and she didn't know the first thing about them.

Since he had started to follow her three days ago, the fallen star had often been surprised at her innocence. It would be fun when the time finally arrived where they would use her. He was sure about it.

But he was not there to think about things like that. He was there to make sure that her magic continued to grow. He was there so that when the time came, he could report to Mordachi that she had gained enough magical energy that was needed to complete the plan that the leader of the fallen had come up with while they were imprisoned.

It wasn't all that surprising that they were using her, in Lazarus's mind. After all, it was her and her team that had been the catalyst for their escape.

It had all started when Lullaby destroyed the mountain that had ensnared Sophronia. Of course the Tower of Heaven gave the red head enough energy to free Ezekiel. They were joined by Ambrosia not long after that when she had freed herself from her prison during the Nirvana incident. Then Lazarus himself had been released when the Eclipse Gate had been opened a year ago. And of course, when the Heartfilia girl had gained enough power, Mordachi had freed himself and waited for the others to come to him. It was all thanks to the Celestial Spirit mage and her team that they were freed.

But Lazarus also could not help but admit to himself that her magic called out to him. And he hated the way it did. It was as if she was trying to get him to go against Mordachi when she didn't even know that they were freed. For that reason alone a part of the fallen star wanted to kill her now so that she wouldn't be a threat. So that he wouldn't have to deal with her later.

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**A/N: I hope that you all enjoyed that! I liked writing it, and I really couldn't help but do that to Natsu, lol it was slightly evil. And I got to get into the head of Lazarus! Yay! Please let me know what you all thought about this and how it is doing. **

**And real quick, for those of you who were interested, I have posted the Ghost Hunt and Fairy Tail crossover. It is called Fairies and Tigers and Ghosts, Oh Mai. Yes, I had too much fun coming up with a name...**

**Thanks for reading, and until next time!**


	11. Chapter Eleven: What!

**A/N: So...I was going to wait...but I couldn't! On and...I'm sorry...I know that I shouldn't have, but I did. I couldn't help myself. Plus, it is a really good test for her. Thanks for all the reviews, and I hope to be reading more! Yay!**

**I do not, and never will, own Fairy Tail!**

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Chapter Eleven: What!?

"Lucy, wake up! It's time to go!" Natsu jumped excitedly on the bed where Lucy was sleeping.

With a groan Lucy mumbled "Five more minutes," before rolling over and throwing a pillow over her head. She did not want to get up this early in the morning. After the restless sleep that she had just had, Lucy wanted to forget the world existed for the next few hours.

But Natsu was not having it "Lucy, that's what you said ten minutes ago! And then twenty minutes before that!" He whined as his partner. This was strange for him; it was usually Lucy who forced him to get up.

Finally, it was not Natsu, but Erza who got the uncooperative mage up and moving. She did so by pulling the blankets off of her and dumping the girl on the cold ground. It was something that the ex-quipping mage had seen Lucy use on several occasions to get either Gray or Natsu up and moving in the morning. Apparently it was just as useful on her too.

Once up they made their way down to the arena. Natsu had Lucy's hand as he dragged her the entire way. Well most of the way.

About three feet out of the hotel/bar Lucy accidentally smacked right into someone with long blue hair.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," she had apologized the moment that she could stand again. She really hadn't meant to run into him. She was taken aback by his appearance slightly, but being the mage she was, she attempted to stifle the gasp and act as if everything was normal. After all, she did see Freed's enchanted eye once, and it really wasn't that different from it. Only both of his eyes were black with green irises in the middle. Plus, he also seemed to be inhuman with his looks in a way. Lucy wouldn't have been able to describe it if she was given a year to try and write it down. There was just something different about him.

"No need to apologize, it was just as much my fault as it was yours," he replied smoothly. Lucy then felt it as he scanned her over for some reason before leaving. She couldn't get the feeling t go away that she should stop him or something. When she had fallen, she had felt her magic do something, but she wasn't sure what. Also, the man seemed familiar somehow, though she was positive that she had never seen him before in her life.

She wanted to go back and speak with him. At least ask him what his name was. Lucy felt that it was important.

She was shoved from her thoughts right when Natsu began to drag her again, and by the time they were in the Fairy Tail box of the arena, all thoughts of the blue haired man had left her mind. She was too excited to see what was going to happen next!

She didn't even know that Loke had opened his own gate right after she had left and was looking around the place they were sleeping. He had felt something that was disturbingly familiar, but he couldn't find anything that suggested it was what he thought it was. But as the leader of the zodiacs, and as Lucy's trusted spirit, he had to make sure that there was nothing around that would endanger his princess.

Back at the stadium, the crowd was buzzing in pure excitement. This next event seemed to call out all of the big hitters of the guilds, and as with any crowd, they wanted to watch an all out brawl ensue between them all. They were even separated by what team they were cheering for so that in the fans minds, they were doing more than just watching this competition; they were a support base for their favorite mages.

As soon as they announced that this was going to be a Chariot Race, Erza stepped forward so that Natsu could not. None of them wanted a repeat of last year to happen.

"And for this Chariot race, we have chariots pulled by horses that care controlled via the SE plugs that are provided. You are to avoid obstacles as well as attacks from other players while you are simultaneously attacking the others. Have fun!" Chapati yelled to both the competitors and the audience.

Almost immediately after being transported into the arena, Erza mounded the carriage with a smirk and plugged herself into the SE plug with a confident look plastered on her face. There was even a gleam of evil in her eyes as she tried her best not to cackle at the challenge before her. The others looked warily at what they were supposed to be driving, but none made any motion to decline the responsibility.

Orga, Jura, and Mira all mounted without that much complaining. Mira looked so sweet as the chariot she picked was suddenly decorated in pink ribbons. Orga and Jura looked intimidating. The others simply looked nervous. Hibiki felt as if he had some chance in getting into the top five. With his Archive, he knew that dodging the obstacles would be no problem. It was the people that he had to deal with that would decide if he won or not.

As soon as they were signaled to start, Erza began her crazy driving and ex-quipped into her Heaven's Wheel armor. With swords flying everywhere, she easily moved into the first position. Once there, she took out half of the shield from the Adamantine Armor set that as well as the staff from her Lightning Empress Armor.

Not a moment too soon. Jura had sent a rock fist towards her, and Orga had fired his black lightning cannon at her as well. Her shield effectively stopped the rock from doing damage, and instead it seemed to spur her chariot on, while she had gathered the back lightning with the staff and had sent it back, along with her own blue lightning towards the God Slayer.

But she did not aim it at him; Erza had aimed at the Chariot's horses that pulled it forward. The act seemed to short circuit them for a moment and they staled. But that was enough for the Chariot to catch up and become a tangled mess that he would have to sort out in order to continue in the game.

The Adamantine shield just barely held up as it was struck with a dark blast from Mirajane who was now fully transformed into her Satan Soul. Switching the Lightning for the Flame Empress Armor, Erza shot flames at the competitors behind her.

So focused on what was behind her, Erza almost smashed into an obstacle, but she swerved right at the last moment and continued to race. It was a testament to her S-class status that she was still in the lead, but Mira was not so easy to beat, and neither was Jura for that matter.

The three were neck to neck for the entire last half of the race. The only thing that differentiated Erza from the other two was that she did not slow down at turns, she did not drive carefully, and she was driving almost too recklessly. That really sad part was that Lucy knew this was the way that Erza normally drove. A scary thought, but it was true.

She crossed first, with Jura coming in second and Mira third. Orga had made it in fourth, a fact that he was not pleased about while Hibiki had been lucky enough to come in fifth. And just like that, Fairy Tail A had made sure that their lead was absolute.

Later on during the games, as they announced each fight, the Fairy Tail mages were getting more and more nervous. They all noted that neither team was being called out, and because this was supposedly random, they began to suspect that they would have to face each other in battle. It was something that neither team wanted to really do, but it was something that they had to do if the decision came through.

Their suspicions were proven correct as the second to last fight was announced to be between Blue Pegasus and Lamia Scale. This left both Fairy teams for the final fight of the day, and that was more concerning than any of them wanted to freely admit.

Master finally spoke for his guild only "I know that this will be a difficult fight, but I trust that both teams will give it their all. No matter what, fight as if they are from a different guild because for just this once you are not allies; you are competitors from different teams, fighting for the same goal!" His speech made all of the mages assembled nod in respected his words and all of the people on the teams silently swore that they would fight to the best of their capabilities.

"Oh, and I will be the house for all bets taken on this game! My cards tell me that it will surprise us all!" Cana said as she looked up from her cards. "And the best part is that it won't be me who goes up there!" To prove her point she held up the lightning card and the death card. Apparently each symbolized the mage that was going to be fighting.

Everyone knew that the lightning was Laxus, but no one could even hazard a guess about which of one of the following people was the death card. But even not knowing that, half the guild had bet on Laxus knowing that he was the strongest of the guild that was there.

"I want to fight Laxus!" Natsu announced as he jumped up and down.

"Natsu, if it was you who he was going to fight the card would have been the Hanged Man." Cana said drolly. This caused quite a lot of snickers from the guild. Some people out right laughed at what Cana had told the fire breather. Everyone also noticed the sly smile that Cana wore. It was clear that she knew things that the others did not. And she wasn't going to tell anyone what it was.

Finally, the time came to discover who was going to have the misfortune of taking on the Laxus Dreyer; the one who defeated Jura of the Ten Wizard Saints single handedly last year in these games.

"Alright, listen up everyone! Today there is a special treat for all of you. The two Fairy Tail teams are going to be going head to head!" Chapati announced to the audience. Every single one of them cheered at that. They wanted to see a good fight. Internally, the crowd wanted to see Natsu and Gajeel fight the most, but they would be happy with anything.

"From Fairy Tail B, we have Laxus Dreyer!" he announced the one that they knew about first. The crowd was silent as they waited for the next name to e called. It was almost an agonizing wait as the announcers knew to make the wait long in order to keep the crowd at the edge of their seats. "And from Fairy Tail A, we have," he paused once again "Lucy Heartfilia!"

The crowd was absolutely silent as they chewed over what they had just heard. The mage in question however, yelled at the top of her lungs "What!"

Her eyes were wide as she looked from Chapati to Laxus and back again. She did not want to fight the lightning dragon slayer at all. This had to be the worst thing that had happened in the games. She just knew that she was going to get crushed in the first five minutes.

Even so, she made her way to the arena and was standing across from Laxus. He was just standing there with his eyes closed and hands in his pockets. It didn't even look like he cared at all. Lucy even wondered if he had somewhere better to be at the moment.

"This should be an interesting matchup. Laxus is clearly the stronger of the two, but I wouldn't count Lucy out all the way. It seems as if her magic has improved greatly. That might make it so that she can last in this fight." Yajima said as he watched intently.

There were murmurs in the crowed about what was said. They all were seated at the edge of their seats.

Once again Mato went over the rules of the fight, and the gongs sounded.

Lucy noted the Laxus didn't move right away, and she took that to her advantage as she took out not one, but three keys.

"Open, gate of the shield, gate of the lion, Scutum, Loke!" She yelled out. Once they were out she said in a clear voice "Gate of the Snake Charmer, lend me thy power, Ophiuchus!" And then there were gasps as she was enveloped in a golden light for a moment.

When the light faded, she was still standing before them, but it looked completely different from the Lucy they had seen a moment before. The physical changes were mostly to her face. Her eyes were now the same as what the Snake Charmer's had been, and her tongue that came out was forked and thinner than it was before. A set of fangs poked out from her upper lip slightly. She also had shadows that seemed to emanate from her body and surround her. In her hand was the shield spirit that she had called out, and to her right stood Loke.

"Don't forget about Stella Accessurum, it will help you deal with his lightning." Loke said as he gave his key holder a look of pride.

"Right," Lucy said, but her voice was much deeper and richer than it had been before. It was a combination of her voice and the voice of Ophiuchus. She concentrated and an eerie golden glow surrounded her from inside the shadows. It was as if she was giving off both light and shadows at the same time. This would enhance her strength and durability slightly.

"What in the world has she done?" Chapati asked as he watched with wide and amazed eyes.

Yajima thought for a moment before saying "It would appear as though she is using the powers of the snake spirit inside of her own body. But I don't really know. I have never seen something like this before."

The members of Fairy Tail in the stands stood there stunned at the transformation that Lucy had gone into. That was, everyone but the five that she had been training with. They simply smirked at her decision to show everyone what she could do. They were proud of Lucy for at least trying to fight against a power that dwarfed her own.

And then there was Yukino who was with the rest of Sabertooth. She had never seen any of the new magic that Lucy seemed to have mastered since the last time that they had met. It caused her to wonder if it was something that one had to discover on her own, or if it was a thing that only the person with the thirteen golden keys could do. Either one wouldn't be surprising to the former Celestial Spirit mage. But as the others of her guild tried to ask her about it, she was almost sad to inform them that she didn't have a clue to what was going on.

Summoning the strength, they both jumped at Laxus. He had shed his coat and was waiting for them to make the first move. Lighting his own fists with lightning, he made it to Loke before the lion could get a hit on him and sent him flying back into the wall. It wasn't enough to send the spirit back to his world, but the hit was hard.

Lucy managed to get behind him and kicked out with more strength that the dragon slayer thought that she had. It moved him a couple of feet and forced him to grunt, but other than that it didn't seem to do much damage. He went to punch her and met the shield's protective barrier. It sill sent Lucy back about ten feet.

"Ssstellam!" She called out in her snake like voice and sent a beam of light directly towards Laxus. He easily dodged it before coming in close and kicking her in the side to send her and her shield flying once again.

Then he unleashed a 'lightning dragon's roar' right at her and she could do nothing but hold Scutum up and hope that he could endure it as Loke tried once again to make a move on Laxus, this time using 'Regulus Impact' to try and do some damage.

"Sorry, Lady Lucy, but that is as much as I can handle," The shield said after the roar was complete as he disappeared.

"Thank you, Ssscutum," Lucy said as she faced the other blond, not sure if she would have time to do anything.

"Lightning Dragon's Heavenward Halberd!" He yelled and before Lucy could react the lightning was speeding towards her in the shape of the weapon he had just named.

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**A/N" And I shall be evil and leave you all with that! I now that I was evil to even think up this match up, but I really couldn't help it. I had a ton of fun with it, and I hope that you all enjoyed reading it! Please let me know with a review or even offer some constructive criticism. I am open to it. And soon, oh so soon, there will be an even bigger plot twist! I'm very excited if you cant already tell. Thank you for reading!**


	12. Chapter Twelve: She Says

**A/N: hello! I have come back with a new chapter that I hope will make a lot of people very happy. I know that I loved writing this. Plus it will clear up what happened last time! Thank you to Ebon fire Red waters, RandomObserver42, Guardian of Heaven, and TheCrimsonShinigami for reviewing my last chapter. It made me really happy! I hope you enjoy this chapter, and please leave a review when you are finished!**

**I own Nothing! Well, I own something, just not Fairy Tail! **

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Chapter Twelve: She Says:

When the attack hit, it kicked up a big cloud of dust. It was clear that something had happened, but no one could see what it was. There was no noise that was heard from the Celestial Spirit mage, so they weren't sure if she was hurt or not. The crowd and the guilds sat at the edge of their seats to see what had become of the Celestial Spirit Mage after that powerful attack from Laxus.

When the dust finally started to clear there was a strange shape standing in it. And finally they heard a soft voice say "'That was cutting it close' she says."

That was when the dust completely cleared and everyone could see the strange clock with Lucy housed safely inside. This caused most of the guild to sigh in relief because they had heard of this spirit saving not only Lucy was also Wendy in the nick of time before this fight.

Getting out she said "Thank you, Horologium!" as the spirit went back into the spirit world.

"You were able to guard against that attack. That is impressive." Laxus commented with a nod of appreciation. He didn't know that the clock had forced open his own gate in order to do that. But she wasn't going to tell her secret.

Taking out four golden keys she dismissed the two zodiacs she had out and began her next plan. The appearance that the snake charmer had given to her disappeared in sparkles, leaving her looking like her normal self.

Four was pushing it, and she could see the looks of interest and curiosity from the other mages in the stands. Many wondered if she was able to summon the four out at one time; it was a feat they none had ever heard of before. Lucy wasn't even completely sure if it would work, but she had to try. She did know that she had grown in power with all of the training that she had been doing.

"Open, gate of the Heavenly Scales, gate of the Twins, gate of the Goat, Libra, Gemini, Capricorn!" She called out. The magic drain was substantial, and she could feel it to her very core, but she needed to do one more thing if she wanted to last in this fight. She didn't want to take out her secret weapon in case she needed it some other time in the games so she chanted "Gate of the maiden, lend me thy power, Virgo!"

Laxus was curious to see what she was planning this time, so he waited; might as well give her at least a little bit of a chance to fight. He thought it would be no problem seeing as he would just knock her out right before time was going to end. He thought it would be good for the fans to see. And he wanted to see what else that Blondie had up her sleeve.

This time when her transformation was complete she had blue stoic eyes and chains dangling from her wrists and ankles. Her skirt had also shifted into a longer one that resembled the bottom of Virgo's maid outfit.

"Gemini, Libra, Capricorn, you know what to do!" She called out in an emotionless voice. They nodded and Gemini took that time to turn into what Lucy looked like normally, only, unlike last year, this time it was a fully clothed Lucy.

Lucy drilled into the ground using the power that Virgo lent to her. The three spirits spread themselves so that they were on all sides of the dragon slayer so that he could not simply wipe them out in a single attack.

Laxus was caught off guard when Lucy drilled into the ground. He knew that the spirits all had different powers, but he hadn't been close enough to Lucy in order to actually know what each spirit did. He was also stunned with how useful the spirits appeared to be.

As Gemini started to chant something that Laxus could not hear, Capricorn rushed forward and engaged Laxus in hand to hand combat. Libra started to weigh the dragon slayer down so that he was not as fast as he usually was and could not do as much damage as he usually did at close range. It was a strategy that Lucy had formed during one of her training sessions with Loke and Capricorn on the beach. She was very proud of it too!

Capricorn used his subjugation magic in order to also render most of the slayer's magic ineffective, as they fought hand to hand. Laxus was impressed with the goat spirit. He always found it hard to find someone who could match his speed in a fight like this. Though, he was frustrated that his confidence was lower than it usually was. It was simply because of his overwhelming power that he was landing any blows at all.

He did notice the gravity change, but he couldn't deal with the other spirit as this one was demanding his full attention. Also, he was still worried about what Lucy and the Lucy-look-alike were doing. He knew that she was not stupid, and she was not one to let her spirits fight for her. He could see the glowing around the spirit and felt the magic gathering. He could also feel and hear the vibrations in the ground from where he was assuming that she was drilling.

As soon as he was about to rid himself of the goat spirit, he heard Lucy break the surface and yell out to her spirits "Now!"

Capricorn jumped back as Libra applied more gravity to Laxus and Gemini finished the chant by saying "**Urano Metria!**"

Laxus was thrown through the ground and into the hole that Lucy had dug while the spell that Gemini casted barreled down into it. He was trapped and had to take the full brunt of the spell in a confined space that would serve to intensify the effects of the eighty-eight stars. It was the strongest move that Lucy felt she could do without summoning her trump card to play.

"Look at that! Lucy Heartfilia has proven that she can be both powerful and smart. Can Laxus recover from that attack?" Chapati asked dramatically to the short man that was sitting next to him.

"It is most likely that he has. This is the same Laxus Dreyer that defeated the entirety of Raven Tail and Jura of the Ten Wizard Saints last year. It was a good hit, but I don't believe it was enough for Lucy to win." Yajima mused as he watched in interest.

Sure enough, a flash of lightning made it out of the hole and almost immediately took out the closest Lucy. It happened to be Gemini, and so the twin spirits simply shimmered back into the spirit world with an apology to Lucy.

"Nice move, Blondie," Laxus commented as he started to stalk towards the other Lucy. He was a little wounded from the attack, but otherwise it really didn't look as if it had done much. That caused Lucy to become even more worried. This was taking a lot of her energy.

Dismissing Virgo, Lucy pulled out her whip and poured magic into it as Capricorn once again started to fight Laxus with Libra weighing him down. She kept up with the Stella Accessurum, remembering that Loke had said it would help with being struck by lightning.

Lucy flicked the whip at Laxus, not realizing at the time that it was the wrong thing to do. She hadn't considered that her whip was made of water and that water was a great conductor of electricity. But Laxus knew this when he felt it wrap around his arm and bite into him. So he let lose a stream of lightning that traveled up the whip and into Lucy.

The girl yelled and attempted to let go of the whip, but the electricity that was running through her had locked all of her nerves in place, making it impossible to do anything at all. She was only saved when her spirit launched himself at the lightning mage, causing him to lose his balance as Libra once again brought a large amount of gravity on him.

Once the electricity had stopped running through her, she dropped the whip. She was thankful that she had listened to the lion spirit. If not, she would have most likely been rendered unconscious by that attack. Even Laxus looked surprised that she was able to endure that. The last time he had done that to Natsu, the guy was out cold for over an hour.

He broke out of the gravity as he blasted the spirit with a strong roar of lightning before he was hit with another of Lucy's beams. He could tell that it wouldn't take too much now that she was almost out of energy after taking that hit from him. He just needed to land one more attack on her. Or so he thought.

Taking care of the goat spirit, he then turned to face her just as she went to punch him. He caught the blow and threw her back into the wall. She hit with a crack, but she got back up on her feet a moment later. It was once again a surprise that she wasn't unconscious or seriously wounded.

Flashing up in front of her, he lit up his fist again and punched her in the gut, slamming her again into the wall. She cried out, but once again she pulled herself up from her knees and stood. Her persistence was causing whispers in the audience; none thought that she would be able to take that last attack.

"Why won't you just stay down?" Laxus asked as he readied another attack. Everyone could see the emotion inside of his eyes. After the fantasia incident, he had sworn not to hurt his guild mates. But in this fight Lucy just wasn't staying down. He was conflicted with annoyance and guilt that he had to cause her further pain.

"As long as I can stand, I will fight," Lucy managed to choke out in between pants. The glow around her was starting to dim by then, and she was swaying slightly on her feet.

"Is that why you are always beaten within an inch of your life whenever you are up against someone much more powerful than you? I will admit, even this is frustrating." Laxus asked as he started to breathe in another roar. He was hoping that this would end it, but he was starting to wonder just how much it would take to get her to stay down.

Lucy gave a sheepish nod "Why beat them when you can just out last them? Besides, it had worked in the past." Her answer was followed by a laugh as she straightened a bit more in anticipation of the next attack. Just a few more minutes, that was all she needed.

Laxus scowled at her and said "Then you can't blame me when you get hurt," before releasing his high powered roar at her.

Gasps were hard around the arena as the lightning barreled towards Lucy and the Celestial Spirit mage made no move to even try and dodge the attack. Even Laxus widened his eyes at that. He didn't know why or how she was going to take this attack. Just before it hit her, a shadow scooped her small frame into its arms and ran to get her out of the way.

When the smoke cleared, everyone saw that Loke was setting Lucy down on her feet, much to her pouting. "Loke, I wanted to see if I could handle the attack!" She whined.

The spirit looked at her before saying "Lucy, you barely have enough magic left to summon Plue, do you really think that we, as your spirits, would allow you to take a hit like that in this state?" He asked her pointedly.

She sheepishly shrugged. Then they face Laxus again and she said "I wasn't going to blame you. You heard what Master said," Then she and Loke lunged forward, Loke with his Regulus fists and Lucy with her slightly glowing leg.

Laxus Dodged both attacks and then made to punch Lucy in the face when she suddenly dropped, causing her to yelp and Laxus to stumble slightly. It was enough for Leo to hit him with his 'Lion's Brilliance' and send him a few more feet away. Lucy then was carried out of the hole she had fallen into by her maid spirit.

"Thank you, Virgo!" She said as she again turned to her slightly surprised that another spirit was out. Frankly, the entire audience was surprised that another one was out. They had not seen her draw her keys or hear her say an incantation.

"Now, if you don't have enough energy to call out your little dog key, how are the two zodiacs out?" Laxus asked as he landed a solid kick on Loke and avoided Vigo as she came up from the ground.

Lucy smirked as she dodged the traces of lightning that were making their way towards her and said "They can open their own gates. I guess they wanted to fight you." Then she turned to Virgo and called out "Virgo, turn into your other form, the one you had before you were working with me!"

Almost immediately, Virgo tuned into the gorilla made that she had seen so long ago as her deeper voice called out "Yes, hime," and from the stands one could hear Natsu yelling "No! Not that, anything but that!"

But it didn't make much of a difference. Lucy knew that this form was not stronger, but she was hoping it would startle Laxus enough to give her an opening. It didn't, and in two more attacks both spirits were forced back into the spirit world.

"Enough games," Laxus said as he saw there were only a few minutes left. He had dragged out the fight long enough in his opinion.

Flashing into lightning, he once again connected his lighting fist to her stomach and sent her sprawling into the opposite wall. Again, to the shock of everyone, she stood back up. Albeit, she took her sweet time getting back up, and she was slumped and shaking but she wasn't down yet. So he again went at the speed of his lightning and sent her flying across the arena.

This time she rolled for a little before coming to a stop. Ever muscle hurt as she struggled to find some sort of strength in her legs to pick herself back up. The glowing finally come to an end, symbolizing that she was now completely out of magical energy. Her panting was shallow and labored.

"Just stay down," Laxus muttered as he hit her again with his lightning in stead of his fists. It wasn't like he had a choice. The rules were to fight until someone was down and out. It didn't matter that he was feeling guilty about how she was basically defenseless. And her answering scream of pain proved it.

As she got up this time, she could barely get off of her knees. Her legs were shaking for everyone to see, but there was something in her eyes. Gajeel recognized it as the defiance that she had given him when he was beating her during the Phantom Lord incident. Team Natsu knew it as her determination. The crowed saw it and held their breath as she smirked.

Laxus was about to hit her again when the buzzer sounded.

"And it's a draw! Both teams get five points!" Mato exclaimed as Laxus stopped mid attack and walked up the girl he had just beaten before offering her his hand.

She was about to take it, but she just couldn't lift her arm any more. Not that she had to. Within seconds she was surrounded by Team Natsu right before she passed out. Even if it was a win for Laxus, because she managed to stay conscious for the thirty minutes, it was a draw in the games. She had made Fairy Tail proud.

"Amazing! Lucy Heartfilia managed to last through some of the most powerful attacks of the day! Her spirit has spoken for itself and this was one impressive match. I still cannot believe that she could last that long!" Chapati announced with amazement.

Yajima added "Yes, it was very surprising, but I would expect nothing else from a Fairy Tail mage. I think that she still has more surprises in store for us all! I am interested to see how the rest of these games play out."

Chapati nodded before saying "And this battle concludes the second day of the Grand Magic Games!"

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**A/N: I really hoped you all liked that. I did. But then again, I am totally biased on it. Oh, for those of you who were interested, I posted my crossover for Ghost Hunt and Fairy Tail. It is called Fairies and Tigers and Ghosts, Oh Mai. Thank you all for reading, and I really would appreciate it if you could leave a review.**


	13. Chapter Thirteen: Visitors

**A/N sigh, I really have not been doing a ton of writing, but this had been written for a while now. I know I should be updating my other stories too, but at the moment I am unmotivated. So here you all go. Thank you to the people who reviewed, you all made me very, very happy! And please review for this one too!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail**

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Chapter Thirteen: Visitors

"Stupid humans and not stopping once they are out of magic." The strict voice of Porlyusica rang out in the infirmary as she started mixing things that she was going to have Lucy drink later.

"Why didn't she just stay down, I mean, it wasn't like she could fight anymore. I don't get it," Laxus said to the others. Good thing that none of them blamed him for hurting Lucy. They all knew that it was going to happen one way or another. Those were the rules they were forced to abide by during the games.

"Because it was Lucy; if she has any strength left in her body, even when she is out of magic, she will continue to stand and fight. If it means doing something to make her nakama proud, Lucy will do anything. She thinks of us like family. And she will never give up. Especially not while she can still stand!" Natsu said with his signature smile.

Everyone was shocked that the flaming idiot they knew and loved had just said something so smart. Gajeel was openly gaping at him while Mira had just gotten hearts in her eyes as she thought about pink haired brown eyed babies or blond haired black eyes babies. She had never heard of anyone else that Natsu would talk like that about. Meanwhile, team Natsu who had known this all along were beaming at the sleeping mage. They all loved her just as much as she loved all of them.

"How is she?" Erza asked.

Porlyusica thought for a moment before she said "She will be fine by tomorrow, but I want her resting and in here all day tomorrow. No excuses, if you all want her able to fight in the final battle, she needs her energy back, and in order to have that back, she needs rest."

The guild nodded and looked over the sleeping mage. They all were happy that she was going to be fine. Laxus was glad that he didn't severely injure her. He knew that he could have, but he was glad he didn't. Hurting guild mates left a bad taste in his mouth. He was hoping that he wouldn't have to do it again.

"Get out! This place is for the sick and injured, the rest of you humans can just shoo," The pink haired woman suddenly yelled as she muttered a few other choice insults under her breath at the mages who were assembled.

They did as she said and left as fast as they could. None wanted to feel the wrath of that angry old woman. Many had felt the end of her broom that she had seemed to have with her everywhere she went, and they could all testify that it did hurt to get hit with it.

Lucy ended up sleeping most of the next day away. It was well into the individual fights when she awoke feeling as if someone had just forced her to drink a gallon of pure caffeine.

"Oh, good, you're awake. I'm going now," Porlyusica muttered as she walked out the door. Lucy didn't see her put the vial down that she had been holding earlier. The older woman had just forced the contents down her throat.

Apparently no one needed healing from the Fairy Tail teams this far into the day. And that was fine for them; it meant that the pink haired woman would not need to work as hard. The old woman wanted to go ahead and watch the last few fights. She also wanted to talk to Wendy.

Lucy nodded, even if no one was around to see it. She didn't mind being alone, as far as she knew, they all thought that she was sleeping still. The mage also was pretty sure that her team had gotten chased off by Porlyusica at some point after they annoyed her too much. It had been known to happen.

As she looked around the young girl noted that she was in the bed closet to the door and then she could still hear the roar of the crowd. For some reason it reminded her of the time she was in this exact room last year. She still had nightmares once in a while of what Minerva did to her. It was hardly fair. But she also remembered that she knew how the fight was going based off of the noise coming in when Natsu and Gajeel were against the light and shadow dragon slayers. She remembered that Natsu won, and she was still confused about what happened with Gajeel.

A warm feeling came into her heart as she thought about that. She could rely on Natsu to always be strong enough when it mattered. That was one of the things that remained constant. Whenever they were in a bind or needed some sort of strength, they would all rally and Natsu would lead them to victory. Or at least that was what it felt like with her.

"Congratulations," a voice brought her out of her thoughts and back into reality. She hadn't even realized that she was spacing out. Looking to the voice she saw that it came from the man with the long blue hair that she had bumped into the other day.

"What do you mean?" Lucy questioned. Her brows had scrunched up and her eyes showed the confusion that she felt.

"Forgive me, it appears that you do not know," He said as he seemed to bow his head.

"Well, why don't you come in and tell me? I don't bite," Lucy smiled at the man. Her trusting nature was making it so that she fully trusted the man not to do anything.

He cocked his head to the side and questioned "Isn't there a rune barrier around your infirmary? Can I even get in to it?" What Lazarus did not indicate was that he could probably get through the barrier regardless of what the Celestial mage wanted. He also knew that he would be perfectly fine in any standard to get in now that she had invited him in.

"Yeah; Freed only wrote the ruins for people who do not have out mark and are not invited in. Since I invited you in, you can just pass through!" Her tone was cheerful and she smiled brightly at the man. It didn't even seem to bother her that she didn't know him.

With a small smirk that could pass of as a nervous smile, the male came into the room and sat in one of the chairs that was positioned next to the bed that Lucy was currently laying in. He found it most interesting that she would invite him in. After all, the first time she had met him they had run into each other quite literally. And on his part, he had done so on purpose.

"I was congratulating you and your team. If you have not already heard, Wendy, the blue haired Dragon Slayer of the sky, won today in the group round. And then your ice mage, Gray, won against Twilight Ogre right after that." He said with a half smile.

Lucy's face literally lit up at the news of her friends' victories. She knew they would do well. "How did Wendy win?" She asked curiously.

"It was an Air Battle this time. She managed to blow most out with the help of the Sky God Slayer. Then she managed to distract the girl long enough to push her out as well. It was a well fought battle, and in the end the two little mages went around and healed everyone involved." He said with fake amusement in his voice. Of course the two of them would do that; it was so like them.

Lucy didn't catch on to the fake quality of his voice. She was too busy smiling and thinking about how much Wendy had grown since she had first met her as the little mage of Cait Shelter. She briefly wondered what would have happened to Wendy if they hadn't taken her in. She shook those thoughts out of her mind. No, there was no way that it would have ended differently. Wendy was a part of Fairy Tail, and she was one of them. There were no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

"I also thought to congratulate you on staying in the fight with that Laxus guy. He seemed really powerful." Lazarus added. He was fishing, not that Lucy knew that, and he wanted to get her talking.

"Yeah, he is one of the strongest mages in the guild. I still can't believe that I lasted that long against him. If I wasn't so determined, I don't think I would have." Lucy blushed in embarrassment. She really didn't feel as if she should be praised for lasting that long. She had still gotten really beat up, and she could barely land a hit on him. The good ones that she had gotten were only because of the cleverness of her spirits and well thought out plans. If she had been anywhere else, Lucy knew that she would have been down in seconds.

"You did good," the man said as he placed his hand on her shoulder. This was the first time that their skin had touched.

Lucy suppressed a shiver. His words seemed well meant, and he seemed to still be praising her, but there was a feeling inside of her that said something about him was wrong. For some reason, the moment that he touched her, she wanted to step away from him. But she knew that it was not right to do that with someone who came to check on you. So she masked the shiver that went down her spine and kept a smile on her face. She also did not like the icy feeling that was starting to enter her stomach as well as the pulsating her magic seemed to be doing. Something was not right.

"Well, I better be going. Good luck tomorrow, I think that you are going to need it." He smiled and left, smirking once he had his back to her. He had managed to do what he had been sent to do, and now all that he had to do was to wait for the perfect opportunity to see if it worked!

Meanwhile, Lucy looked after the man, still wondering why he had stopped in. It wasn't like he had said anything really important, heck; she didn't even know what his name was. But there was still something really familiar about him. She really wanted to find out what it was. If anything, she figured that it would end up being about her father or mother. She had met a lot of people back when she was younger. Maybe that was it.

Lucy didn't realize just how wrong she was about all of that.

A flash of light came out from nowhere and Loke was suddenly standing by her bed. Even though he looked relaxed, Lucy did not miss how he seemed to be on high alert as he scanned the room before looking at his key holder.

"How are you feeling?" He asked with his trade make flirtatious smile.

Lucy giggled, deciding to ignore the obvious protectiveness that he had just demonstrated by scanning her room and answered "I am fine. I feel like I could do anything right now. But I suppose I will just have to wait until tomorrow to do anything. Porlyusica would kill me if I got up anytime today."

"Well I couldn't have that!" The lion spirit proclaimed as he stood straighter and tried his best to put on his prince charming persona on.

Giggling, Lucy begged him to stop. It ended in both of them dying of laughter as team Natsu ran into the infirmary hearing the sound that they had been hoping to for the past day. They all hated when the Celestial Spirit mage was unconscious. It made them feel as if they didn't do enough to protect her.

They all acknowledged that Lucy was a strong mage, but that didn't stop their feelings. Gray and Erza viewed her as a little sister they had to be there for. And although Natsu didn't know the extent of his feelings, he always wanted to protect her. She was his partner, best friend, and someone who seemed to be growing more and more important to him. He knew that he would do anything for her without asking a single question. Even if he did complain a lot about her, it was only natural.

Happy, of course, took this time to fly into Lucy's chest and start spewing unintelligible patter about fish and missing her. It caused her to laugh again as she once again felt loved in a way that only these people could make her feel.

"I am so proud of you Lucy; you held up against some of the mast powerful attacks out there!" Erza praised.

"Yeah, Luce, you did great. Though, I wanted to fight with Laxus! I would have won too!" Natsu childishly claimed as he spewed a bit of fire and raised his fist into the air. Lucy could only roll her eyes at him.

"You idiot," Gray sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose in between his thumb and pointer finger. He didn't know when the guy would learn. "If it was you, you would have gone running at Laxus and would have been unconscious in less than a minute!" He told the fire breather.

Of course that started a fight as Lucy and Erza shook their heads at them. But it didn't stop the smile that Lucy had on as Loke retreated to the Celestial World. He trusted that she was safe in the hands of her team. Loke had felt the presence that had been close to Lucy earlier, and he had been worried. But when he had arrived, he didn't see anything wrong. So he had decided that he would watch her until someone came.

He also liked to see her laugh, so it was no trouble for him to do that for her. Joking around was one of the fun things he could do with Lucy that his other masters hadn't allowed. It was actually sad how much the other mages that could carry keys had suppressed their personalities.

Leo had noticed since being with Lucy that all of her spirits were beginning to be themselves again. The hardest one that was having problems adjusting was Aries. Leo knew that she was not always so soft spoken. She was a general after all, but as her stars had aged, she had changed. She had been forced to change. The ram spirit had always had a heart of gold and a strategic mind, but now she seemed to be afraid to say anything to anyone. Leo was glad that Lucy seemed to be bringing out the old Aries little by little by not scolding her or abusing her.

Then there was Aquarius. Loke didn't know anyone else who would have dealt with that mermaid's attitude. But Lucy allowed it. It was within her rights to complain and change it, but she valued allowing her spirits to act how they wished over forcing them to be tools. Leo was even more surprised when he learned that she allowed Taurus to make perverted comments and only complained a little bit about it.

In his mind, Lucy really was one of a kind. And he had sworn to protect her with his very life. It was not a decision that he had made lightly, and through all of his time with her, it was also not a decision that her regretted. The lion; the leader of the zodiacs, was happy that he could make that promise to Lucy.

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**A/N: I hope that you all liked this, and please leave a review and tell me if you did. Thanks. **


	14. Chapter Fourteen: So It Begins

**A/N: I would first like to apologize for being so late. I will be posting when I can from no on, I am starting up college and I am unsure of my availability. This chapter took so long because I was having difficulties with the wifi, but hopefully now that is done with. I will post as often as I can, but I also really do need to update my other stories as well. So Now that that is over, I really hope that you like this chapter. It happened to be what I was starting to lead up to so it should be fun. Oh, and last thing, I absolutely love Lahar as a character, so...I am not going to say anything else...**

**Disclaimer: I do not, nor will I ever, own Fairy Tail**

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Chapter Fourteen: So It Begins

All of the mages were once again in the arena for the fourth day of the games. It was on this day that they would have the final matches before the all out war that they would be doing on the final day. Lucy stood with the guild as they watched their competitors preparing to enter the new and improved Pandemonium setup. This time, instead of choosing how many monsters you defeat, all of the contestants had to storm in at once and fight all of the monsters in their way, earning a set amount of points for the level of monster defeated. The one with the most points at the end was obviously the winner.

For Fairy Tail team A was Natsu, and for the B team there was Gajeel. Everyone was watching on with excitement and awe when all of the contestants flooded the place and began to take out monsters. Of course it was long and grueling. The final monster was an S-class monster, of course, and without them knowing it, Natsu, Gajeel, and Rogue had teamed up to defeat it, causing the points to get split three ways between them.

The worst part about it was that the two Fairy Tail Dragon Slayers had tied. This situation could have easily been resolved by giving both teams the points, but instead the two began to fight again. The announcers saw how much the crowed was getting into it and allowed them to fight for first and second place.

Unfortunately, they both ended up almost passed out exhausted at their efforts. So each team got the same amount of points in the end and they got to be ridiculed by the other members of their teams.

"Alright, today we are doing team battles. For every battle there will be three people from each team participating. They will have to rely on team work, power, and discipline in order to be victorious in these matches!" Chapati yelled out for the audience to soak up and cheer about. It was almost frightening how well the man could get the crowd rallied up.

Today, for the guest commentator, there was Lahar. He had once again agreed to be the guest, and he was also there in case there was any funny business between guilds. Apparently in the past there were several instances on the second to last day where the rivaling guilds would try something less than legal in order to win points.

The B team of the fairies won their match against Sabertooth rather decisively, much to their disappointment, and the Trimens were beaten up really badly by Mermaid Heel. One could have even said that they were crushed under their heels if they wanted to; it was that bad.

It was almost frustrating for Fairy Tail team A as they waited once again to go last. Natsu was a no go, but the others were now itching for a fight. And the fact that they were going to be against Lamia Scale had Gray wishing that he would get to fight with Lyon somehow. He had been itching for a fight like that for a while.

"And, for our final fight of the day, we have the Fairy Tail girls; Wendy, Erza, and Lucy, against Lamia Scale's men; Jura, Lyon, and Toby!" Chapati announced. Once again the crowd cheered. However, most went pale. It did not look good for the fairies seeing as they were up against a wizard saint.

The three girls gave each other a nod as they hardened their eyes in determination and prepared for a difficult battle. They really didn't know what the battle would be like, not yet anyway. They didn't know that their opponents should have been the least of their concern.

The gong started and as Wendy began her supporting magic, Erza ex-quipped into her Black Wing armor and Lucy took out two keys. She knew that now was the time. If they wanted to beat a Wizard Saint, she needed to pull out all of the stops.

Using the first key she called out "Open, gate of the lion, Loke!" A flash announced the lion's presence as he gave Lucy a confident nod of approval. Then she focused her magic and will as she lifted the second and yelled out n a commanding voice "Open, gate of the dragon, Draco!"

In an even bigger flash the dragon was present, only this time he was in his original form. Lucy could feel the magic that it took, but she was determined to keep him out for as long as she could. The crowd was struck by the dragon that came at Lucy's call. Since no one truly remembered the Eclipse Gate incident, no one had ever seen a dragon before. And Fairy Tail had never dreamed that the little dragon that stayed on Lucy's shoulder could be that big.

Even Erza and Wendy took a moment to look at the dragon with appreciation. The magical aura that the dragon emitted was enough to make the three males in front of them start to sweat just a little bit. Regal power seemed to flow through the dragon as he appeared to smirk knowingly at the mages.

"Lucy, I've waited the entire week for you to summon me, and this is all I get to go up against?" He asked, his silver eyes flashing humorously as the low timbre of his voice sent shivers over multiple peoples spines. He did enjoy scaring people before he got serious in any fight. It was fun to see the fear being masked by determination until right before they knew it was done and they looked at him with panic filled eyes.

"Yes, but do be careful, the one with no hair on the top of his head is immensely powerful. A Wizard Saint no less." Lucy said. Her prim speaking coming back to her as Draco spoke in his own formal way. It was almost hard for her not to dive back into her heiress antics when spoken to in such a way.

"After almost a thousand years, let me see just how strong this Wizard Saint is," Draco said as he prepared for his fist fight with Lucy. He knew that she had waited for his exact reason. And he would not fail her.

With a deep inhale, the dragon let loose a roar at Jura who instantly lifted his hand and forced the ground to create pillars in front of him to shield him from the golden blast that came from the dragon's mouth. But that was just barely enough as the last of the pillars disintegrated a moment before the roar was cut off.

Meanwhile, Erza had engaged Lyon by destroying the first few ice structures that he had been able to make, and Lucy used Toby's lack of brain cells against him. As Erza chopped the head off of an ice ape, Lucy looked at the dog man and said "Is that something in your face?"

The man looked at her confused before bringing his long nails up to his face to see and accidently paralyzing himself. Seriously, one would think that he would learn after his time on the demon island. Not that Lucy was complaining. It meant that she didn't have to worry about expending ore magical energy than she had.

"Erza, you go after Jura with Loke and Draco, Wendy and I will take care of Lyon!" Lucy yelled as Erza nodded. One would have thought that the S-class wizard would be the one to give the orders in the group, but the two mages trusted Lucy the most when it came to brain power, and it was what Erza had thought of to begin with. They really didn't understand why it seemed to surprise the two mages they were against as well as the crowd when Lucy just put their unspoken plan into words.

"Sky Dragon's Roar!" Wendy attacked. And as Lyon swerved to avoid it, Lucy brought her fleuve d'étoiles down on his leg and flung him into the swirl of wind that Wendy had blew from her mouth where he was forced to take the hit and was thrown to the wall.

Meanwhile, Erza and the two spirits were caught in a dance of attacks, each attacking in tandem, barely allowing the powerful mage a chance to breathe. That was just what they wanted as they attacked. They could hardly see Erza and Loke as Draco just stood and attacked. He gave them the cover they needed as he also took most of the blows. His hardened scales were barely giving in to the damage that the attacks were supposed to cause.

Jura knew that he was too strong to defeat, so he had to go through the Celestial mage in order to win, but Loke and Erza were keeping him very busy. So when he could he yelled over to Lyon "Get Lucy knocked out first, it will reduce our opponents by over half!" Then he once again let out his 'Raging Mount. Fuji' on the dragon.

The announcers were still going on about the dragon spirit to really notice this, but they did make the mention that with Lucy eliminated, both spirits would be forced back into the spirit world. Lahar was watching the proceedings with a keen eye, wanting to know how her power had improved so much in a short period of time. He almost thought it was not possible, if not for the guild she belonged to being called Fairy Tail.

Lyon created ice eagles that flew towards Lucy but were shattered as Wendy defended with his wing attack. They were all settling into attack stances when a bright light engulfed the arena. With no spell being called out, no one knew what to make of it, but from the warning sounds, it appeared as if something from the outside world had decided to interfere with this fight.

As the light got closer, the temperature seemed to get hotter, and something was attacking them. On instinct, Lucy forced herself in front of Lyon as Scutum forced his way through his gate in his emergency mode. Horologium had also activated and had opened around Wendy, protecting the Dragon Slayer as Draco had opened his wings and shielded Erza, Jura, and Leo. They too knew to protect all of the competitors. Even the unconscious form of Toby was saved by the dragon's wing span.

A blood read dome barrier come over the arena during this and five figures seemed to descend into it. Natsu and most of Fairy Tail had already begun trying to penetrate the barrier. They knew that they had to help in some way.

As the light faded, the two spirits that had come out for the emergency went back to rest in the spirit world and everyone could see the inhuman figures that stood regally on their platform. Lyon had not been as lucky as the others. Although Scutum had made sure to widen his barrier, he was only meant to protect one person. Lyon was saved from the full brunt of the blast, but he had still sustained injuries.

"Who are you and why do you interfere?" Erza demanded as she pointed her sword towards the newcomers. She was beyond pissed at this new development.

Lucy looked on with fear in her eyes. She looked at these people, and she knew one of them. The blue haired man was standing there, watching her, along with the four others. One was a girl who looked as if she wanted nothing more than to skewer all of the people in her sight. Her dark red hair reminded Lucy of blood as she seemed to jump from the floating platform where they stood.

Her breathing was now labored due to the two emergency gate hopers and keeping Draco out in his large form. Lucy could barely manage a gasp when the girl said "I am Sophronia. And these are my superiors. Ezekiel and I are here to eliminate you."

Those names, Lucy could have sworn that she knew them from somewhere. The names seemed to send some sort of shiver down her spine, and she could feel the magic within her start to pulsate again as it too assessed the new opponents.

"You shouldn't have come here, Sophronia." Loke growled as he lit his fists and stepped forward. All playfulness was gone and replaced with a scary expression that Lucy had truly only seem maybe once or twice. He meant business.

"Leo the lion; looks as if you are once again the Spirit King's lap cat. How long did it take? Twelve days away from him?" The girl taunted. A sadistic tone etched into her voice as she continued "You should have taken up my offer and joined us. Then at least you would be free to do as you wished." The sneer was almost venomous enough to cause Lucy to flinch back from it.

"And become a fallen? Do you take me for a fool? I will not remove myself from the spirit world in such a way. Unlike your bunch, I still have honor and loyalty." The lion seemed to spit back at her.

The woman laughed as she looked up to the three that were above the arena still. "Oh, did you hear that? The cat seems to think that he can beat us." He reported with more laughter in her voice.

"Kill them," came the order from the one who seemed to be the least human. He didn't show any emotion as he said that, it was simply an order.

"Yes, Mordachi." Both of the beings responded. It was that name that snapped Lucy out of her mind and she finally remembered when she had heard these names before.

Her eyes widened as she muttered "The Fallen Stars! They must have broken the seals again!" And then she realized that she was the only person who could even stand a chance against them if it came to a real fight. That was a prospect that seemed to scare her even more than the fact that they shouldn't have been in the arena in the first place.

Erza and Jura jumped the male as Leo launched himself at the female. Both seemed to dodge with ease as Erza's swords stuck in the dirt around the two fallen stars and Loke kept missing his hits. It was clear that the two were only playing with them.

Lucy was about to join in the fight herself as she activated her Stella Accessurum, only this time, instead of a consistent glow, it seemed to pulse with her heart beat. The power flowed through her as she readied her whip for a strike.

But then the unthinkable happened.

The one who had called herself Sophronia started to cackle as she seemed to soak up the light from the sun. Then, without warning it seemed as if she caused the magic to implode, causing all of the debris and shrapnel of the fight to come towards her before forcing it to explode. That meant that she had gathered all of the swords that Erza had thrown into the field before he threw them at everyone.

Scutum and Horologium once again came out, but this time the attack was too much for the clock. He apologized as he was forced back into the spirit world, leaving little Wendy nearly defenseless to the attack.

Lucy watched in horror as she saw one of the swords pierce the small blue haired girl's abdomen and rip all the way through and out of her. Even the hilt had passed through he little girl's stomach.

"Wendy!" She let out a broken yell as she discarded the spirit shield and ran to the one she had considered her little sister as the girl fell to the ground. She could hear the cries of her guild, as well as some of the others mix with her own.

But it was too late. The damage was already done.

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**A/N: And now I am evil! Please drop a review and I will be very happy. It might even make me update quicker. thank you all for reading, and until next time!**


	15. Chapter Fifteen: Determination

**A/N So here we are with the next chapter. I know that I was so very evil when I left off last time, and I really hope that I can redeem myself in this chapter. If anything it will show something else that I have been leading up to. And this is once again to the point where I have written ahead with. So since I have to update the other stories (which I have really sucked at keeping up with) I don't have a schedule planned for posting. But it will be as soon as possible! XD I would also like to thank you for all of the reviews that you guys have given to me. It means a lot to me. To TheCrimsonShinigami I would like to say that I understand what you meant with that and I will keep that in mind for my future chapters. **

**I do not own Fairy Tail at all!**

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Chapter Fifteen: Determination

In the stands almost everyone in the audience was on their feet. They all had been assured by the announcers that this was not supposed to be happening, and they were all trying to figure out what the heck was going on down there with the six mages that were now being assaulted by the five strange beings.

Doranbolt had already tried and failed several times to teleport himself into the barrier that was around the combatants. He now stood next to Lahar as the two of them thought up the possibilities of who it was that had challenged the mages in the arena. It was clear to both men that Lucy and her spirits knew something that was going on from the way they were acting and speaking.

Then Doranbolt saw the attack even before the others, and he felt as if it was watching the attack on the island once again. He felt as if he was letting her down. He prayed that Lucy's spirits could do something, but as he watched, he saw that the clock was weakening, and he was forced to watch as the sword went through the little girl. He felt his heart ache as he saw her fall, and his own heart seemed to yell with Lucy's broken voice and the voices of Fairy Tail. And he was forced to watch as he let Wendy down once again. Was he ever going to be able to do anything for her on time? Was he ever going to save her from the danger he was forced to watch her endure?

Yukino watched with her hand over her mouth as she saw Lucy run to the girl's side. She and everyone else in the stands knew that there was no help for the little one. She was going to die if the barrier stayed up for any longer. And that fact brought tears to the woman's eyes as she felt Rogue beside her.

Then she heard Lucy call out with all of her grief a single name; "Phoenix!" and she began to panic.

Yelling with all of the loudness she could muster, she yelled "Lucy, you can't have both Draco and Phoenix out at the same time! It will kill you!" Her voice was horse as she yelled in panic, and she would have thrown herself at the barrier of not for the hand that came across her waist and held her to a strong chest.

"You can't do anything. I'm sorry Yukino, but you have to let Lucy do this. It is not your fight." Rogue said in her ear softly. Yukino wanted to fling herself away from him. But she knew that he was right. Covering her mouth again with her hand and trying to suppress the sobs that come with her tears, she watched on with dread held in her soul.

Lucy nearly passed out as the flaming bird came out of her gate and landed next to Wendy. She would have scolded the girl for being reckless with her magic, but she saw the situation and knew what had to be done. It also helped that Lucy had sobbed "Please, please, I'll do anything, just save her. Please," as she knelt next to the girl.

With a nod and a grim expression the bird made of flames called out "Draco, Leo, leave and come back on your own power, I need all of Lucy's magic!" Her voice left no room for argument as she ordered two of the most powerful spirits of the Celestial Spirit World around.

With nods, they did as they were told. Both disappeared only to reappear not two seconds later. Both were still ready to fight the fallen starts that had challenged them.

Phoenix had concentrated then, and Lucy could feel the drain on her magic. Fairy Tail looked on completely shocked by the presence of another new spirit as Wendy was covered in the golden healing flames. Doranbolt was filled with a sense of hope once more as he watched the wound that went all the way through Wendy get smaller and smaller as the flames seemed to re-grow and re-piece was what cut.

With Lucy breathing heavily the spirit finished and said "That is all I can do for her. She will be completely fine if she rests. I will now take my leave." The beautiful fire bird bowed before she disappeared in a shower of sparks.

Now that the fear and worry were gone, something new filled Lucy. As her magic pulsated even stronger through her, she stood and allowed the determination to win for her guild burst through her. In her mind she reminded herself that she was the holder of the Thirteen Ecliptic Zodiac Keys, and that it was her responsibility to defeat these fallen stars before they killed countless innocent people. Now that Wendy was safe, she would have her revenge. And she would defend her friends with her very life. Nothing could stop her now!

Loke was getting beaten. He didn't want to admit it, but he could tell that the fallen stars were stronger than they had been in the past. As he blocked yet another swipe of magic that Sophronia aimed at him, he couldn't stop the worry that he had for Lucy. Already the Titania was having problems finding her feet and Jura who had been weakened substantially by Draco was out of the running. The leader of the Zodiacs knew that if something didn't happen soon, they would not win this.

"What's the matter kitty? Finally seeing that there is no hope?" The female taunted again. It was a tone that really was starting to get on the lion's nerves. If anything he wanted to win just so that he didn't have to hear her speak any more.

Before Leo could answer, he felt the warm spatter of blood on his cheek as Sophronia coughed in surprise.

Both of them looked down to see the tip of a barbed sword sticking out of the fallen star. It also seemed to have a glowing aura that pulsated like a heart would. Looking to the one who wielded the sword, Loke saw Lucy standing there with her eyes shaded by her bangs. When her hair had gotten free from her bow, he did not know, but from the level of magic that was coming off of her, he knew something had changed.

The fallen star only choked more as Lucy yanked Dorado back out of her and let go, successfully sending him back to the spirit world without a word. Her magic seemed to cause more damage to the other girl every time that it brightened with her steady heart beat and touched her.

"You dare come here and try to kill my friends. I will make you pay!" Lucy promised as she lifted her head and showed her blazing eyes.

Loke gasped as he saw his key holder's eyes. Her right eye was golden and her left one was silver. They shone with so much intensity that if he hadn't known better he would have said she could look into his very soul. It was right then that he knew they had managed to unlock her Star Slaying magic. And from the sheer amount of anger that adorned her eyes, he also knew that she was not going to give up until they had paid in blood.

Her promise made, Lucy took her fist and smashed it into the part of the woman's stomach where the sword had gone through, throwing her several feet and getting a scream out of her. The crowed was silent as they felt the Celestial Spirit mage's power roll off of her in waves.

"That was for Erza," She said as she stalked her new found prey. Lucy regarded Sophronia as the girl scurried onto her feet while clutching her wound.

"This is for Wendy," she said as she flung her foot into the target and once again sent her flying. The entire audience had their mouths open. After watching for a good fifteen minutes as no one was able to land a hit on the two beings who had stormed into the fight, it was kind of amazing to see the one they had never thought could beating one of them senseless.

"And this is for taunting us," Lucy added as she was about to land her final blow. Only this time her fist was intercepted by a different hand.

She looked up with her shining eyes to see the man with spiky brown hair and wolfish features had stopped her. What surprised everyone was the she simply smirked at him before she faced him and said "So you want the same treatment?"

Before anyone could really comprehend what was going on they were wrapped up in a fight. Lucy's fleuve d'étoiles was long forgotten as it lay next to Wendy's unconscious form. With no weapons out, and with her spirits not able to get a clear attack because she was too close to the fallen star not to hit her as well, Leo and Draco couldn't do anything but watch as Lucy unloaded all of her anger on the guy.

She consistently dodged his attacks while firing her own at him. She kicked and punched. None of her team mates had ever seen her move with such grace or utilize so much power as she swirled in the air and had her foot connect with her opponent's head. They could do nothing but watch as she seemed to leap into the air and maneuver in such a way that most of them would have thought impossible if they hadn't been watching.

And then something stirred within her. Her eyes seemed to shine even brighter as she chanted "**Oblitus dolor, dolorem Derelicta!**"

Her magic seemed to burst forth from within her, and when it touched the two fallen stars, they both yelled out in obvious pain. Their ear splitting shrieks telling of pain beyond the comprehensions of the mortals who were watching. But when the magic hit her friends it seemed to leave them alone. If anything it also seemed to heal Leo and Draco. They felt it as if it was trying to purge the evil that was not even in their souls while strengthening the good.

"That is enough. I think that she still has much to learn." Mordachi said emotionlessly to his generals on the ground. Ezekiel gladly grabbed Sophronia and brought her to the platform that they had set up while still trying to ignore the pain that was rushing through him due to Lucy's last spell.

Then Mordachi faced Lucy and said "Make no mistake, Lucy Heartfilia, when you are stronger, I will come back. And when I do you will not be able to stop me." He said it without emotion as he waved a hand and the arena was once again blinded by a bright light.

Even if they were gone, Lucy's anger was not quenched, and her power was still swirling around her. The barrier was finally down, and the rest of the guild had rushed in. Natsu wanted to go over to Lucy, but he was stopped by Draco as Loke very carefully approached the girl with golden hair.

"Lucy?" He asked as he carefully stepped towards her. She took no heed of him as her head was still turned upwards to where she had last seen the five. So he continued "Lucy, they are gone for now. I promise you that we will train you, and when the time comes, we will defeat them. You just have to wait a little longer. Okay?"

Lucy heard his words. He had told her to wait. But the Celestial mage did not want to wait any more. She wanted to find them and force them to pay. All she had to do was follow them. Deep in her mind she knew that he was right, but the rage that she had been feeling up until that point still clouded her judgment and made it so that she didn't want to listen to him.

As if hearing the call for revenge in her heart, and knowing that she needed to fly in order to achieve it, Lucy's magic began to respond by forming into two wings along her back. One of silver and one of gold, they began to solidify behind her.

"Lucy, please," Leo suddenly began to panic, "you cannot go up against them now! They will kill you. Please listen to me. You need to train. It's the only way to beat them. Please," he begged her.

But Lucy didn't hear him. So in a last ditch attempt, Loke called out for the maiden spirit to come to his aid. And sure enough, right after Virgo appeared she said the words "Hime, Wendy needs you," and the magic creating the wings seemed to shatter into dust as Lucy's eyes faded back into the regular chocolate brown once again.

"Wendy!" She whispered with urgency right before she ran back over to the unconscious girl who was surrounded by guild mates. Seeing that their master was back to her former self, the three spirits traded looks before two went back to the spirit world. The three knew that things were not going to be the same anymore.

Leo stayed by his master's side because he knew that the Magic Council would have questions for her that she was not allowed to answer. He knew that they would demand to know everything, and he also knew that there was a very fine line that stated what they were allowed to tell Lucy, and what they were allowed to tell the rest of the world. It was like this for a reason, and the lion spirit knew that it would be worse if Lucy had to go through that by herself.

Right on cue, Lahar had reached them and asked in his strict voice "Can you came with me and answer some questions Miss. Heartfilia?" To be honest it really wasn't much of a question at all. It was an order that was stated as a question.

Not wanting to get arrested for the second year in a row during the Grand Magic Games, Lucy nodded, much to the complaining of her team mates. They all thought that she should stay with them and the rest of the guild. Since they didn't know what was going on, it only seemed right that Lucy didn't have a clue either. Plus, more than one individual wanted to throw a party to celebrate the power that Lucy had shown during the match. Finally, Lahar and Makarov agreed that they would both be present during the questioning, and forced the others to deal with that decision.

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Meanwhile:

"Good work Lazarus. You have successfully opened her up to the Star Slaying magic. Now all we must do is wait for those pesky spirits of hers to train her with it." Mordachi praised the man with blue hair. The man simply inclined his head to the prince he had chosen to follow as he accepted the praise.

"You planed on us being beaten like that?" Sophronia growled through her pain. Ambrosia had been tending to her for over an hour and the wound still didn't seem to be closing. With each passing minute, it also seemed as if the red haired girl's temper seemed to flair even more. It was almost annoying to listen to it at this point.

Ezekiel seemed to have been fully healed by then. It was to the point where one might not have even noticed that he had been hurt only a short while before. "I haven't a clue what that spell was that she casted on us, but it is not something that I want to feel again."

"Did you not recognize the words that she said?" Lazarus asked with a sadistic smile on his face.

When the lower general shook his head, Lazarus laughed as Ambrosia said "Pain of the fallen, pain of the forsaken." The words seemed to bring a chill over the mountain that they had returned to. It seemed to be the base of operations for the time being.

"Are you telling me that was the same pain that we felt when we detached ourselves from our star?" Ezekiel asked even when he knew the answer to be yes.

"I no longer remember the pain, but I do know that it was painful. I do not pity you the pain that she made you remember." Lazarus said in his ominous voice. He was one for theatrics when the moment called for it.

"Lazarus, I want you to continue to follow the girl. We need to make sure that her power increases. It will be dangerous from now on, but we must know. It also does not help that she will be the first we face with this magic, so we must know everything that we can about it before we attach." Mordachi ordered the man with the lizard like eyes.

The man gave a simple nod as he walked away from the other fallen. He did his best to ignore the panting being done by the youngest as she still struggled with the injury that the Celestial Spirit mage had caused with the spirit sword. In his heart he knew that if he was found, it might mean his life for the first time since he had become a fallen star.

Since they had come down to Earthland, they had thought that they were immortal. Each had been given the belief that they could not die. But from the fight that had just taken place, all four of the generals now questioned if that was true.

What the others did not know, and what Mordachi did was that the magic that the Heartfilia girl had unknowingly infused into the wound that she had dealt to his youngest general was slowly eating away at the fallen part of the girl and leaving the spirit that she once was alone. That was what Star Slaying was after all. But he had still yet to tell the others of his plans involving the girl. It was not time yet, and they wouldn't like it very much. But they would not be the ones who had to betray everything in order to make it work. Mordachi knew that what he had planned for Lucy was a fate that she would have declared to be worse than death. And that was part of the fun of seeing her grow so strong. He could already imagine the fun it would be to pull off her wings and strip her of her pride.

Soon. Soon he would test her again.

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**A/N Here is another chapter. I hope that you all liked it, and I would love it if you would drop a review. I am having so much fun with this right now. **


	16. Chapter Sixteen: Unanswered Questions

**A/N I hope that you like this newest chapter. I know that to me it jut adds even more questions to the pile that I am going to have to answer later, but that is the fun part! Thank you so much to the Guests, Ebon fire Red waters, Coolanime14, and FairyTail123 for reviewing. And please keep up with the reviewings, it really does remind me to post faster! Thanks!**

**I do not own Fairy Tail...**

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Chapter Sixteen: Unanswered Questions

"Did you see that?" A voice asked.

A thick black cloak covered its shoulders and head and swooped down to the grown. If it was to be removed, one would be able to see the stylized lizard insignia that identified her as a member of the dark guild Lizard's Bane. One might also notice how young she was. After being recruited into the guild as a young girl, she was still in her middle teens. Though, age didn't much matter seeing as she had enough power of her own to be the sixth strongest mage of the guild. Sadly that also usually made her the gofer to the higher ups. Something that she despised.

"That girl has both Draco and Phoenix. Of course I saw. It was only a matter of time before they were contracted again, after all." An answering voice said from within the shadows. The first person simply looked into the shadows, wishing not for the first time that she could see the man that had hidden himself within them. She had seen him once, but that had been nearly a decade ago; so long that the image had been long forgotten.

"What will you have me do, Master?" she asked once she let her eyes drift to the wooden floor boards of the barn that had become their guild hall. She was almost afraid to ask the question; the Master did not like it when others questioned him, even if it was just for his own orders. And yet, she always had to in order to know what to do next.

"Isn't that obvious?" The voice scoffed at the girl. "I need you to follow her and report anything and everything to me. And if you even allow them a glimpse of you, I will know and you will be punished severely. And you must keep her alive. Do you understand that? Under no circumstances is she to die!" The voice snapped.

"You want her alive?" She repeated, but sadly she also worded it and said it as if it was a question.

"Of course, simpleton. I need her to gather the other keys like those two!" The man in the shadows roared with anger.

She suppressed her fearful shivers as she said in the strongest voice she could manage, "Of course sir, I will go there right away."

But as she turned to leave, there was a bone rattling chuckle that come from the shadows. "Oh, Della, did you really think that I would let you off the hook for questioning me?" The cold voice asked.

Biting her lip, but not turning around, the young mage shook her head a second before pain was suddenly erupting from all of the nerves in her body. It was the price that one had to pay for questioning the master, and Della was all too familiar with it by now. Not that her ear piercing screams told the same story. She was still young after all.

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With Lucy and the Rune Knights:

Lucy was put into a chair with Master Makarov on her left and Loke standing at her right. Across from her sat Doranbolt and Lahar. Each of the men were looking at her skeptically. It probably had to do with what she had told them a moment before.

"What do you mean that you are not able to tell us what has happened?" Lahar asked curtly. He did not have the patients or the time to be dealing with her and the answers that she was unwilling to give to him. Then again, he believed that nothing was confidential when it came to the law. He was a duty bound man who thought that as long as he served to the best of his capabilities, he and the rune knights would be able to do anything that the Magic Council needed of them.

"I don't know how much I am allowed to share if any. You must understand, I only just learned of this a few weeks ago, before this I didn't even know that it would happen. This is very sensitive information that concerns the spirit world. I only know of it because I am the holder of the Thirteen Ecliptic Zodiac Keys. I am not officially, but I am basically under a gag order by the Spirit King." Lucy said it how she felt it was. She didn't want to get in trouble, but the book was warded against anyone else reading it. If it was something that important, then she had a feeling that it was not something that she was allowed to talk about with anyone.

"What can you tell us?" Doranbolt asked as he eyed her with just as much frustration as Lahar was hiding. He was not a man to mince words or hide what he truly thought; a fact that had gotten him in trouble on numerous occasions.

Taking a deep breath, Lucy turned to Loke and asked "Loke, as the leader of the zodiac, what can I tell them? Or would it be easier if you explained?" She asked her spirit with pleading eyes. He knew that she hated that she had to hide things from her friends like this. It was hard for her not to tell Levy anything about it.

"Give me twenty minutes. I'll ask the Spirit King." He whispered to her. Then he looked at the three men and said "I will be back, and when I do I hope that none of you have forced information out of Lucy. To be sure of that, Virgo will be here shortly." Then he disappeared in a burst of sparkles that had barely disappeared before Virgo came in her own flash of light.

"I really don't like all of these damn loop holes. If someone just told us what was going on, we could fix this!" Doranbolt growled.

Lucy was going to answer, but she was cut off when Virgo asked "If your King had shared something with you and had ordered you to keep it a secret, and then when you are on a different land with a different king you were asked to explain it due to similar circumstances, what would you do?"

The two men hadn't thought about it like that, though, Makarov had. Now that it was put into words they both nodded their understanding. Though, they did not answer the question. It still angered them slightly that they were not being given the entire story.

As if the silence was a call to him, Draco suddenly appeared around Lucy's neck and said "Sorry if it is unwelcome, but I really do want to see the reactions to what is about to be said. If I asked the maid or the lion, I don't think it will be as interesting."

Lucy shrugged; if anything the dragon being around her neck offered her a sense of comfort that she was not alone. Virgo had given her that feeling too, but it always helped to have more people around her when she was this nervous. Lucy wouldn't admit this to anyone, but she also knew that she would be even more comfortable if Team Natsu could be in there with her. It was nearly impossible to be anything but happy in their presence.

"If it is not connected to the topic that we are trying to discuss, can you explain the magic that we felt earlier? I have never seen magic like that before." Lahar asked.

Lucy winced at the question. Now that she had thought about it, she had a fairly good hypothesis on what the power actually was. And in order to tell them she had to know if they were cleared to know about the fallen stars or not. So she couldn't say anything until after the explanation that Loke was going to give them.

Right when she was about to speak a deep chuckle came from the dragon on her shoulder and they all looked to Draco as he said "Forgive me, but I'm afraid that it is all interconnected. If you want full answers without the fear of getting only getting hesitant answers, then you should wait until the lion returns. I have a feeling all answers will present themselves if you wait for him."

That was how they spent the next fifteen minutes in complete silence as they all shifted uncomfortably. Of course it didn't help that half way through that Virgo asked for punishment and Lucy had to hang her head and remind the spirit that she never gave out punishment no matter how much she asked for it.

Finally Mater and Lucy breathed in relief when a shimmer of sparkles announced that Loke had returned to give the rune knights the story that they wanted. With a serious glint in his eyes Loke took up the most serious attitude that she had ever seen him use as he spoke.

"The people who attacked today are known as Fallen Stars. You see, one can say that it was in a time before dragons when this dispute started. There was war in the Celestial realm. When it was over, the losing party and his four generals decided that they would rule over Earthland seeing as they couldn't rule over the Celestial Realm. They severed their ties with their stars so that they would never fade away and instead started to absorb their power due to the radiation that comes from the sun. That is how they earned the title of Fallen Stars. We spirits have been fighting them for years. Fate has always managed to bless us with the fact that the thirteen keys come under a single key holder every time that they escape their seals." Loke paused then to make sure that they understood this.

When it seemed to be good, he continued "And now that they are out I am afraid that Lucy is the only person who can even try and defeat them. I believe that this time is different. The magic that you saw Lucy perform against the two fallen stars has been called Star Slaying magic. It could be considered lost, but I would like to call it a legendary magic. Only a few others have been able to use this magic, and I have never seen it used to the extent that Lucy had used it today. Usually, by the time the power manifests, the five had already been sealed, and so there was no need to learn the magic. Considering that it is mostly just a defense against the fallen seeing as it can only be awakened by surviving an encounter with one of them while the mage is in possession of the Thirteen Ecliptic Zodiac Keys." He finished and adjusted his glasses to say that he was done.

Lahar and Doranbolt both seemed to be processing this information as they thought about things. They knew that these people that the spirit were referring to as the Fallen Stars had not been around for a very long time because as far as their history went there was no recollection of any mage having all thirteen of the golden keys. They hadn't even known of the thirteenth key until fairly recently as it was.

"Is there anything else, or can I take Lucy back to where our guild is staying?" Makarov asked as he too had been processing what was being said.

"That spell that you said at the end, what did it do?" Lahar asked as he shifted his glasses. He was quite curious at the extent of the magic. After all, it had altered her eye color, made her attacks stronger, and seemed to have been trying to make wings at the end of the fight. He wanted to know what the spell did that had sent the two opponents into such a painful place.

"Um…" Lucy shrugged as she looked up to Loke, hoping that maybe he could explain it.

With a solemn look in his eyes he said "Oblitus dolor, dolorem Derelicta. It means; Pain of the fallen, pain of the forsaken. If I had to hazard a guess at what it actually did, I would say that it repeats the pain that they had experienced when they severed their connections from their stars. But that is also just a guess. It is still a new magic, we need to train Lucy in it more once the games are done. That will be the only way to gain experience and knowledge with it."

"Is there anything you can tell us about the five so that the council is aware of the situation?" Doranbolt asked.

Again Lucy looked at Loke for the answers.

"Their leader goes by the name of Mordachi. We do not know the extent of their powers seeing as they have been growing over the years, but he is the strongest. And the four generals under him in order of their strength are named Lazarus, Ambrosia, Ezekiel, and Sophronia." His answer was short and concise, and it was also clear that not much was known about the fallen stars.

"Alright, you are free to leave. But be prepared for us to contact you once you are back at your guild. If what the lion spirit said is true and only you can take away this threat that had the Titania and a wizard saint thoroughly defeated, then we might be requesting your talents if we meet up with them in the future." Lahar said as he waived a dismissive hand at her and the master of Fairy Tail.

With a sigh of relief, Loke and Virgo left in a shower of sparkles as Draco continued to laze around on Lucy's shoulder. He quite liked this perch. It allowed him to know things that others didn't. Due to his size and hearing he also knew a lot that he wasn't supposed to. It was also a good thing that Lucy by herself was not nosy, and so he could often get close to privet conversations without them or herself realizing it.

He felt as if it would be good for both the Spirit Realm and his mistress if he stayed on her shoulder for the time being. And even if Lucy would not let her spirits call her master that was still the underlying relationship between them. Granted, they were also friends and a large family, but that would not stop them from doing anything and everything that Lucy ordered. It was just the way things were supposed to be run.

But Draco would be lying to himself if he said that it felt that way. With Lucy he would never question his orders. Through the love that penetrated their bond between her and her spirits, they would all do anything that she asked. It was often a one in a thousand chance to find a key holder that went by bonds of friend ship and love instead of drilling fear and obedience into their spirits. That was another reason that her spirits would protect her with their lives.

Grinning as he let his tail swipe back and forth, he heard the two men they were leaving talk of how they had never heard of this threat. They were determined to find out more, and so it looked as if they were going to go and look through the ancient texts for anything more that they could find on the fallen group. He wished them luck knowing that Leo had already given them the brunt of the information and besides a couple dates at best; they were not going to be finding anything anytime soon.

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**A/N So that is the end of another chapter. I hope that you liked it and please leave a review if you would. I so love it when people do.  
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	17. Chapter Seventeen: The Final Day

**A/N: and I am back, yay! Fist off I would like to thank those who reviewed; TheLingeringWolf, Fairytail123, Empress BloodRose (as much as I would love to it would be crap if I did post twice a day), Not-A-Randomer, and Ebon fire Red waters. Thank you all! I hope that you all like this chapter, I really do. As you can tell from the tittle, I am finishing up this little side track into the GMG's and getting ready to move on to the next important parts!**

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Chapter Seventeen: The Final Day

Lucy tried her best to control her breathing a she looked out over the town. Fairy Tail had partied hard last night, and the teams would have too, if not for Erza scaring them all to go to their rooms early so that they could be on even ground with the others when it came to the final battle. Lucy was happy about that because it meant that Gray and Natsu didn't knock each other out. That might have made things complicated.

"Everything will work out. We have a plan and we intend to stick to it!" Erza said with a passive look on her face. Lucy could tell that she excited to pummel people into oblivion. Lucy was glad she was on this team, but at the same time she did not want to fight against the other Fairy Tail team.

For one thing Laxus and Mira were on that team. Those two were monsters. And Lucy already knew that she couldn't defeat Laxus, she had a feeling that she would have to distract Mira in order to get anywhere with that too.

Even with all of the monsters in the competition, the only two that even seemed to be nervous on the first team were Lucy and Levy. Wendy was forced on bed rest seeing as she had almost died the previous day, and so Levy was on the team because she was the reserve. Lucy still wasn't sure how her magic had seemed to be bigger now, or how she had gained her magic fully after just an hour after all that had happened yesterday, but she was grateful to still be in the position to fight for her guild.

Finally the bell rang and the contestants split up to go and look for the other teams to go and defeat them. Levy and Lucy decided that it would be best if they stayed together and fight that way. For one thing, it would make defeating them that much harder, and two, they really didn't want to be alone. Even if Lucy always had her spirits, she didn't just want to leave Levy.

"Ah, look at our luck; two lovely ladies have graced us with their presence. We must not be too hard on them." A flirtatious voice said as they turned the corner.

"Looks like we found the Trimens." Levy said with her best smirk. It was completely fake, and all could tell. She was still nervous but she had decided to trust in her abilities and the abilities of Lucy. She knew that together the two of them could totally do this.

Lucy let out a sigh, "And here I was hoping that it might have been someone harder to fight," it was an over confident ploy that she was hoping would work in her favor.

"Lucy, dear, you should know not to underestimate us," Hibiki said as he smiled at the girls.

"You both can call me your big brother after we beat you," Eve said with his cuteness level rising exponentially.

"It's not like I care anyway," Ren said as he looked away, a small but completely fake blush covering his cheek bones.

Deciding that the men should make the first move, Eve reached out and sent a blizzard at the girls in front of them.

"Levy," Lucy called to her friend to get rid of the first attack as she readied a key.

With a nod the little blue haired mage took out her pen and yelled "Solid Script: Fire!"

A blaze of fire came out while spelling the word fire. It hit the incoming blizzard and there was a short explosion that followed and both of the attacks were nullified. When the smoke cleared Lucy still had her smirk on, but here was no longer a key in her hand. She knew that she was being slightly mean to them, but she also had to admit that it was going to be so damn funny!

As Ren started to make his move he was stopped when the very earth round them started to convulse and quake. Then, out of nowhere, a gigantic gorilla maid came up from the ground and was up in the air right behind the three first of Blue Pegasus.

"Flying Virgo Attack!" it yelled as it body slammed the three boys. When it was done the gorilla maid started to glow before Virgo was standing in her true form in the center of the flattened Trimens. She bowed as she said "Punishment has been served, hime." Then she shimmered back to the spirit world.

Doing a little happy dance, the two girls laughed that they got three points for their team already. Then they both started to walk to the next place when they were stopped by another pair of people.

"Oh, shit," Lucy said as she paled.

Right in front of the two was a four way fork in the road. And coming from two of the sides were two of the more powerful mages. To their left was Kagura, and to their right stood Orga. Both were very menacing, and both looked as if they were out for blood.

Before Levy or Lucy could do anything, the other two mages had fired off their first attacks at each other. And both of the Fairy Tail mages were forced into the air due to the shock wave that they weren't expecting. If they had gotten a warning or time to anchor themselves, they didn't think that either of them would have gotten thrown like that.

"Solid Script: Parachute!" Levy yelled as the letters formed a parachute for her to glide down on. "Lu-chan!" she then yelled as she looked for any sign of her friend.

"I'd be more concerned about yourself, Levy." A deep voice that Levy usually remembered as cheerful and nice said with a hint of amusement.

"M-M-Mira," Levy whimpered as she twisted around to look at the demon flying behind her. Erza was supposed to be the one to face her, not Levy or Lucy. With an evil smirk Mira sent a dark blast at the solid script mage's parachute, instantly cutting it to shreds.

Levy was falling before she could even think to scream, and so she did the only thing that came naturally to her. She took out her pen and yelled "Solid Script: Mattress!" It broke her fall so that she wasn't injured, and she was just glad that the dark blast didn't hit her, that would have been the end.

Levy bounced off of her creation's 'T' just before it poofed out of existence. Then she ran to find somewhere to hide in order to avoid the demon. It was a tactical retreat that would help her team out later, in her eyes.

Just as she rounded the corner, she ran into something warm and solid. Looking up, it was none other than Mirajane. And from the smile on her face, Levy had the notion that this was going to be the end of her participation in the Grand Magic Games.

That was until something big and white ran right into the demon and sent her flying.

Blinking one, twice, thrice in confusion, Levy then looked up to see that the big white thing was actually a horse with wings, and on its back was Lucy.

Flashback:

_As Lucy was sent flying, she suddenly landed onto something that was warm and moving. Opening her eyes she breathed out "Pegasus?" when she found she was on a completely white horse with pearly feathered wings. _

_"Please listen to what I have to say Lucy Heartfilia." A voice said into her mind. Looking around one she had straddled the winged horse in order to ride it properly, Lucy saw that there was a dove not far from her. That was the thing that was talking in her head. _

_"My name is Columba, and this is Pegasus. We have come seeking to make a contract with the one that has found Phoenix and Draco. We understand that the timing for such contracts is not for this moment, but we will explain everything fully once this competition is through. For now both of our keys are on your key ring and through me you can contact any of your spirits telepathically even if I am not out and when I am you can contact anyone else through their minds. Pegasus here has the ability to fly as well as some limited wind and light magic. But be warned, when Pegasus is extraordinarily angry, the light magic becomes darkness magic." The dove finished the introduction in his smooth voice. _

_"Right, we will continue speaking later, but for now we have to find Levy!" Lucy answered with her mind, hoping that both spirits could hear her. _

_With a nod Columba left and the winged horse changed course so that they would reach Levy in time for whatever it was they had to do. When Lucy saw that Levy was with Mirajane, and that the barmaid was in full demon mode, she knew that she had to do something, so she had Pegasus run into her._

"Lu-chan!" Levy said as she saw her friend. She couldn't believe that the blond had just run into the demon Mirajane. Now not only were they in trouble staying in the games, but Lucy had just now put her life in the demons hands. This was not good.

Lucy would have responded if not for Mira coming right in front of them at the moment. The demon looked at Lucy before asking "So, when exactly did you get Pegasus?" She asked as she was getting ready with one of her evil explosion attacks.

"Um," Lucy stalled, "it's a long story, but I know something else that you have got to know about!"

"Oh, and what would that be?" she smirked.

Thinking on her feet about what Elfman and Evergreen had done in the S-class trials, Lucy blurted out "Bixlow and Lisanna have been hooking up, and Lisanna is pregnant!"

Everything seemed to stop at those words, as Lucy knew it would. The pause was so long and tense that both Lucy and Levy had already started to back off, Levy had joined Lucy on the winged horse in case they needed to run away quickly.

Finally Mira said "What! And she didn't tell me?" That started her fuming and ranting.

Finally Lucy interrupted her when she said "But Mira, the good news is that you are going to be an Auntie to a little blue hared, blue eyed baby. Or it could be white hared, red eyes baby!"

Mira stopped again. This time when she moved the takeover was completely dissolved as she started to daydream about the cute little babies that she would be aunt to. It became so much that she squealed and passed out.

"Quick, Levy, while she's down, hit her with something!" Lucy said as she was mentally cheering that she had done something right for a change.

Not sure what to do, Levy called out "Solid Script: Lead," and watched as a giant piece of lead shaped as the word written in blocky letters fell onto the woman so that she wouldn't be coming up any time soon.

Then Lucy looked at the recording lacrima and called out, "I am so sorry Bixlow and Lisanna, but I couldn't think of anything else. Please don't kill me the next time you see me!" And with that, the two rushed off to find someone else that they stood a chance against.

In the stands, the youngest takeover sibling was blushing like mad, while a certain perverted blue haired mage was still grinning like a pervert with his tongue sticking out so that the world could see the guild mark that was stamped on it.

Over with Natsu, he was just finishing up the last of the Blue Pegasus mages and he had gotten rid of most of the guild Twilight Ogre. He was now running around looking for Laxus or Gajeel. He really wanted to fight one, if not both of them. Even if he would get pummeled in the process, he still wanted to fight them! Sure enough, he came up on Gajeel, and he was toying with Rogue. Well, that would be fun!

Gray had gotten rid of a few of the wild crew, though Cana had to take out her fellow drunk, and had once again gotten the better of Rufus. He had met up with Erza shortly after Levy and Lucy were thrown from the area with Orga and Kagura, and the two of them had taken the Mermaid and Saber out of the running. Now he was running off to hopefully avoid Juvia. He didn't really want to run into her and be forced to fight her at the moment, mainly because he didn't want to get soaked.

Erza had been making short work of the people that she had been up against. So far they had been low level mages, until she had come upon Orga and Kagura. It was nice to fight with her again. They were both highly trained and powerful, and working with Gray was also somewhat fun. Now she was looking for her next challenge. And it came in the form of Laxus and Jura having a show down.

As Erza Ex-quipped into her Lightning Empress armor, she came down and joined the fight. As they all started to trade blows equally, Erza was surprised when suddenly Natsu, Gajeel and Rogue came into their plaza and suddenly it when from a three way battle to a free for all.

Gajeel landed the last blow on Rogue right before Laxus almost knocked Natsu out with a large bolt of lightning. But before it could hit him Erza redirected it so that it hit the iron dragon slayer and Natsu was able to use the time to land a roar on Jura. Soon the Wizard Saint was just overwhelmed with Erza landing the last hit on him. Then the four fairies squared off. It was a close and long battle, but Natsu and Erza somehow managed to stay conscious enough to win, though they were both very worn out.

In that time, Juvia had found Lucy. And she was spouting out nonsense.

"Juvia will show Gray-sama jut how much more powerful Juvia is than Love Rival!" She proclaimed like a mad woman before she shot water at Lucy and Levy. Pegasus managed to dodge, but the water just seemed to keep coming, and it was boiling with her jealousy. It really was scary with the two of them that were on the receiving end of her attacks.

As the rain woman's water slicer was raging towards them, Pegasus reared in the air and took two strong flaps of his wings. Wind and light shot forward towards the attack and the water was turned into vapor.

"That's right! Use your light magic to try and stop her!" Lucy called out from her perch on the back of the winged horse. With a nod and a neigh, he spread his wings wide and they began to glow before the light began to stream towards the water woman.

Not that it did much. Juvia might have started to boil, but it really did nothing else to her. "As if Juvia would fall to an attack like that! Juvia will now defeat you Love Rival!" she yelled.

Meanwhile, Lucy yelled out "I am not your freaking love rival! If you want Gray he is all yours! When will you get that through your freaking head?"

Of course that just caused Juvia to rant and throw more attacks. This seemed to last for hours as the two girls were pulling up blanks on how to actually fight against the enraged mage in front of them. They needed Gray, but he wasn't there at that moment. And neither Lucy nor Levy had any clue how to fight her without the aid of ice. They never saw any other way to fight against her. She didn't fight in the brawls, and the only weakness they could think of was Gray.

Finally, it seemed to be getting to Pegasus. A rumbling sound was heard by the girls on his back as he started to shake.

"Are you alright, Pegasus?" Lucy asked her spirit.

It didn't answer, instead Lucy heard Columba in her head as he relayed "It would seem that the water mage has angered Pegasus to the point where he is about to go into his shadow form. It would seem he really doesn't like that the girl is insulting you any way she can."

Thanking the dove for his help, Lucy watched as Pegasus's coat slowly got darker and darker until it was black. At the same time, his wings turned from the feathery ones that they had been to wings that reminded Lucy of a bat. Pegasus was pissed.

He landed and the girls got off as quickly as they could before the enraged midnight black winged horse started to charge at Juvia. Both mages watched with slacked jaws as Pegasus landed blow after blow until Juvia was unconscious and on the brick road completely defeated.

"W-what was th-that?" Levy asked as she looked at Pegasus with a new level of respect.

"Well, it turns out that Juvia pissed him off by speaking badly about me. So he went into his super angry shadow form that only comes out when he is angry and beat her up for us." Lucy answered as she too looked at the spirit with a bit of awe in her gaze.

With his job done, and a bit more tired than he would like to have admitted, Pegasus bowed before he shimmered into the spirit world. Lucy was sure to thank him as he disappeared in a shower of sparkles just like all of her other spirits.

As it turned out, that had been the last fight of the battle. Gray had taken out Cana and the others that were still around while Erza and Natsu did their best to help without dropping into unconsciousness. The three were looking for their teammates in order to help when they had just finished their fight.

"Amazing! Fairy Tail's A Team has won without a single loss! They even beat the other team that had come from their guild! It is clear who the most powerful guild around here is!" The speakers announced. And with that, the Grand Magic Games were over with Fairy Tail once again claiming victory.

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**A/N: so I know that I went a bit funny on that one, but I liked it a lot. It s a nice way to end it in my opinion, and I really did not want the final day to take forever. I was getting sick of the games to be honest. Thank you all for reading, and I still do love it so when people review. It makes me happy, oh so happy, I'm gunna stop singing this song now... Just for a preview, the next chapter will be titled Train Jumping. Untill next time!**


	18. Chapter Eighteen: Train Jumping

**A/N: and here we have another chapter. Yay! So I would like to thank you all who are still reading, I really do appreciate it. And I would also like to thank everyone who has reviewed so far, and faved and followed. It really means a lot to me that you all did that. And a special thank you to krazy524 for being the hundredth follower, I think... If I got that wrong, my bad, but I'm pretty sure that I figured it out after a little bit of thinking. lol. Please enjoy the next chapter!**

**I do not own Fairy Tail at all!**

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Chapter Eighteen: Train Jumping

It was well past noon the next day by the time Fairy Tail was fully awake and lucid from the partying that they had been doing the night before. Still recognized as the strongest guild in Fiore, they all knew that when they got back to Magnolia they were going to have a week long party if not longer. After all, this was Fairy Tail, and that was just the way they were whenever they had something fun to celebrate!

Lucy not only had been congratulated on her growing number of spirits and expanding magic, but she also had to keep apologizing to Mira, Bixlow, and Lisanna for lying during the games about them hooking up and making Mira an aunt. Not that Mira cared if it was true, the barmaid now had her new favorite couple in the guild, and she was determined to force them together and create the cute little babies that she had imagined they would have together. Sadly, that had the two running away from her. Lisanna was completely red half of the time while Bixlow was being the picture of the pervert that most thought he was.

After this turn of event, they all had finally boarded a train that was going back to Magnolia so that they all would be able to go home. It really had been a while and Lucy was missing her apartment terribly. Fairy Tail had gotten an entire car to themselves and without having to worry about other people were being just as loud as everyone knew them to be.

Of course the four dragon slayers were kept in the same booth. Laxus and Gajeel were lucky that Wendy was still able to cure their motion sickness, so they decided to stay close to her for the time being while Natsu had long before been knocked out by Erza and was in his usual spot on Lucy's lap. Not that she really minded it this once, the jibes from the others went unheard as she played with his hair absentmindedly. She just had too many things to think about.

The night before the final battle, Lucy had been lucky enough that she had been ushered into her room and everyone momentarily forgot to ask her about the five strange beings that attacked them. However, it seemed that last night they had all remembered and had tried to get answers out of her. So she had gone to Makarov to ask him what she should do, and they had agreed that it was best if the guild knew as little as possible for the time being. So he had told the guild that it was a new enemy that they had very little information about, and that they were not to ask questions about it.

It was the truth; but Lucy couldn't help but feel somewhat bad for not sharing things with the guild that she considered her family.

Back on the train, Cana had been sure to pack a few (hundred) bottles of hard liquor, and she was currently instituting a drinking contest between her and a few of the men in the guild. Even master was having a drink or two. Of course, about a third of the way back to the guild, she had won against everyone and was now teasing Lucy mercilessly about her lack of a personal life.

That was when the first wave of some unknown feeling hit Lucy. It caused her to literally jump up and out of the booth she was sitting in, consequently depositing Natsu onto the ground and causing Laxus and Gajeel to burst out in laughter. It was amusing to almost everyone on the train, but they all wondered why Lucy had done that. It wasn't like her at all.

The second wave hit and it caused her to gasp as her vision seemed to become tunneled and all sound seemed to blend into the background noise of the train. Her body seemed to move on some unknown instinct as she rushed forward and started to fumble with the latch on the nearest window that she could get to, which happened to be the one that was surrounded by dragon slayers.

"Bunny Girl, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Gajeel's rough voice asked as Laxus pulled her away from the window and towards Erza and Gray who had come over to see why Lucy was acting strangely.

"I need to get off the train! I have to get off now!" Lucy all but yelled as she struggled in Laxus's grip. Before anyone could say or do anything else, another wave flowed through her and this time it caused her breathing to become erratic as she struggled even harder to get away from the lightning dragon slayer.

Wendy rushed over to see if there was something wrong with Lucy that she could help with. But the instant she scanned over Lucy, she knew that something was calling to her friend and sister figure. "I think that she really does need to get off! I don't know what will happen if she doesn't!" Wendy said with her soft, innocent voice full of worry.

People had started to gather to watch as Lucy struggled right before another wave hit her and activated her magic. When she started to glow, Laxus quickly let go and they watched as she unlatched the window and started to jump out. But not before Draco had come out on his own and caught Lucy in his mini form, much like how Happy would have, and flew her to the ground so that she wouldn't get hurt.

"Laxus, go after her!" Erza ordered as she looked out the open window.

"Why should I?" The lightning dragon slayer barked. "I'm not her babysitter!"

It was Mira with a very dark aura surrounding her that answered with "You are the only one who can teleport and be useful to Lucy! The last time she was left alone she disappeared for three months! If that happens again I will make your life hell!" She was snarling, and it was clear that if he said anything else that would tick the demon off, she would use her Sitri demon takeover and would probably end him. "Oh, and you are taking me with you whether you like it or not!" she added as an afterthought with a smile.

So he did what any man in his place would do. He gathered up his ripped up dignity and lightning teleported himself and the demon out of the train and to the place where he had seen Lucy land with her dragon spirit.

Of course she was gone from the area by the time he had landed, and he had to use his nose in order to find her again. It was harder than he remembered it being due to the demon takeover mage that was breathing down his neck rather impatiently. And soon enough they had pulled up beside the wandering blonde. He noticed that she seemed single minded as the dragon was lazing across her shoulders with his tail swaying slightly. He obviously was not worried in the least about this situation. The dragon didn't even seem to mind that Lucy was walking into the middle of nowhere.

"Oi, Blondie, where the hell are you going?" He asked as he nudged the girl a little with his shoulder.

"Laxus, that is not how you are supposed to ask someone! I know that your grandfather taught you better than that!" Mira reprimanded lightly to the grumpy dragon slayer.

"I'm afraid she will not answer you, not until she has found them." Draco said as he opened a single silver eye to look at the young dragon slayer and the demon takeover mage. There was an amused glint in his eye as he shifted off of Lucy's shoulder and onto Laxus's.

"Who is she looking for?" Mira asked in curiosity. She obviously wanted to know if this was going to be dangerous for the Celestial mage that had become almost like a second sister to her over the years that she had been in the guild.

Laxus, however, had a completely different reaction. He was now annoyed and confused about what the heck was going on, and he really didn't want to be that at all. If it had been just Erza who had ordered him to go he wouldn't have, but he valued his life too much to say no to Mira when she was clearly pissed off to the max. It also didn't help his mood any that the ground was becoming rockier the further they were walking. It made any danger that much harder to spot due to the boulders and crevices that things could hide in wait for pry to come around.

The dragon chuckled as he said "You will have to wait and see."

Laxus mumbled something unintelligible. That caused the dragon to smirk at his antics, plus, the dragon knew what was coming up, and he had a feeling that he would be very amused at the antics that the dragon slayer would show.

Mira saw the casual attitude that the dragon was emitting and felt as though there was something that she was supposed to be understanding from what he was saying. But for the life of her she could not figure out what that was supposed to be. It made her more concerned than worried, but she trusted that the dragon would have been showing much more unease if there was any danger to Lucy.

It was almost three hours later, and they were still walking. Laxus had long before started to rant about everything and anything. At first it was about demons forcing him to babysit, but then it went into a full blown preaching on how every single person that he knew was a complete nut job. He even put in his own team, his father, his grandfather, everyone in the guild, and then he went over to the other guilds and continued to rant.

Mira listened to this entire rant with a sweet smile on her face, trying her very best to see if she could perhaps pick out a love interest or two from what he was saying. She didn't even mind being called a demon at the moment seeing as she was like that most of the time when she wanted to get her way. And if everything went according to plan, she would have the entire guild filled with couples in less than a year. Of course she knew the likelihood of that happening was slim, but she had faith that she could at least manage to make a dent in the number of unattached mages in the guild. That was, after all, her goal now since she had stopped going on missions.

Master had been so much help in that aspect as well. It was amazing what the two of them could see if they were both working together. The only problem was that they both had clearly different tastes in who should end up together. When Master had suggested Laki and Natsu might make a cute couple, Mira had taken to planning out her couples without his help. She didn't need any crack parings that just couldn't work in the long run.

Lucy was blissfully unaware as she continued to walk with her heart guiding her. She knew that she was getting closer, and she didn't notice the barrier once again as she walked through it. Behind it was a cavern that was not seen from the outside. At the center was an alter that had two silver keys placed on it. It was very different than the last cave that she had wandered into last time. This one was lighter and not as deep. Also, there was no water in this one either. It was more peaceful than the last, and the stone used was almost white in color. Looking intently at the keys, she walked forward with purpose.

She gingerly picked them up, once again out of the trance, she then took her time studying them in the light that filtered through the cracks at the top of the cavern. One key seemed to have a crescent moon as the teeth of the key while the flat section had an image of a howling wolf. The other was much like the snake charmers key; only the silver snake that wrapped around the silver key seemed to have more than one head and a set of legs. She knew right away which keys these were, and her excitement doubled.

"Princess, you may want to summon them somewhere with more room. I'm afraid that they will take up a good deal of space." Columba sent into Lucy's head from his key on her belt. With a sigh she nodded and started to head out and through the barrier again. She almost jumped out of her skin when suddenly she was face to face with a fuming Laxus and a smiling Mirajane.

"What the hell was that?" He demanded with his muscular arms crossed over his chest. His stormy blue eyes watched as she looked up at him with confusion evident on her face.

"Laxus, when did you get here?" She asked with her eyebrows scrunched up.

"Blondie, we've been following you since three hours ago when you decided to jump out the window of a moving train! You're lucky I did too. I wouldn't have if the demon didn't step in!" He growled at the blonde Celestial Spirit mage while gesturing to the mage that was still standing slightly behind him. He was slightly pissed.

"Oh, well thanks for that!" Lucy said with a huge smile.

Draco chuckled again as Laxus stood there slack jawed at her response before saying "I do believe that you have a worried older brother, he went crazy when he couldn't get through the barrier. It was quite entertaining to watch." The mirth in his voice was evident as Laxus picked up his jaw from the ground and scowled at the little dragon.

Mira squealed at the little dragon and with hearts in her eyes gushed "Oh yes, I can see it now! Two blonde haired mages that come together as siblings of the heart! Oh Laxus, you would make a wonderful big brother. Beware to all those dream filled men who wish to take Lucy for themselves. Now they must prove their worth to the deadly and antisocial dragon slayer who is not her big brother! It is almost perfect!"

Jumping up excitedly Lucy echoed Mira's imaginings by saying "Now I can call you big brother, and you can intimidate whatever guy tries to become my boyfriend! I always wanted an older brother!"

Laxus glared at her, but to her surprise he didn't tell her not to. Instead he grumbled out "So why the hell did you get to go through the barrier when I was stuck out here chatting with your little dragon and the demon?"

"Oh, speaking of that, I have to make the new contracts!" Lucy said as she smiled and turned around in excitement, effectively escaping his securitization. Of course she ignored his question. And just that had him fuming even more.

Laxus was not used to people doing that; most of the time they bowed before him and told him everything that he desired to know and more. But no, this girl had to be infuriating and do things her own way without letting him know why he was taking time out of his day to be there at the moment.

Mira found this funny and said "Would you look at that, it seems that big brother doesn't like the fact that his precious little sister won't share with him." With her hands folded in front of her chest she leaned in slightly, knowing that at the very least it would annoy the dragon slayer even more than he already was. Mira would be lying if she said that she was not surprised that he hadn't rejected being Lucy's big brother outright. It was almost adorable to watch.

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**A/N: and that concludes another chapter. I'm being a bit light hearted at the moment, but that is only because things are about to get really serious in a chapter or two. So savor this attitude while it lasts. Thank you all for reading, and please drop in a review if you wold. As always, I love those things. Oh, and please make a guess as to who the new spirits are! I think that you all can guess them from the descriptions I gave of the keys!  
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